---
title: Manage environment variables in your InfluxDB Cluster
description: Use environment variables to define settings for individual components in your InfluxDB cluster.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/clustered/admin/env-vars/
estimated_tokens: 1605
publisher: InfluxData
canonical: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/clustered/admin/env-vars/
date: '2025-03-13T17:02:04-06:00'
lastmod: '2025-03-13T17:02:04-06:00'
---

Use environment variables to define settings for individual components in your
InfluxDB cluster and adjust your cluster’s running configuration.
Define environment variables for each component in your `AppInstance` resource.

InfluxDB Clustered components support various environment variables.
While many of these variables have default settings, you can customize them by
setting your own values.

#### Overriding default settings may affect overall cluster performance

InfluxDB Clustered components have complex interactions that can be affected
when overriding default configuration settings.
Changing these settings may impact overall cluster performance.
Before making configuration changes using environment variables, consider
consulting [InfluxData Support](https://support.influxdata.com/) to identify any
potential unintended consequences.

## AppInstance component schema

In your `AppInstance` resource, configure individual component settings in the`spec.package.spec.components` property if configuring your `AppInstance` resource
directly or, if using Helm, use the `components` property in your `values.yaml`.
This property supports the following InfluxDB Clustered component keys:

* `ingester`
* `querier`
* `router`
* `compactor`
* `garbage-collector`

#### AppInstance ####

```yaml
apiVersion: kubecfg.dev/v1alpha1
kind: AppInstance
metadata:
  name: influxdb
  namespace: influxdb
spec:
  package:
    # ...
    spec:
      components:
        ingester:
          # Ingester settings ...
        querier:
          # Querier settings ...
        router:
          # Router settings. ...
        compactor:
          # Compactor settings ...
        garbage-collector:
          # Garbage collector settings ...
```

```yaml
# ...
components:
  ingester:
    # Ingester settings ...
  querier:
    # Querier settings ...
  router:
    # Router settings. ...
  compactor:
    # Compactor settings ...
  garbage-collector:
    # Garbage collector settings ...
```

*For more information about components in the InfluxDB 3 storage engine, see
the [InfluxDB 3 storage engine architecture](/influxdb3/clustered/reference/internals/storage-engine/).*

## Set environment variables for a component

1. Under the specific component property, use the`<component>.template.containers.iox.env` property to define environment
   variables.

2. In the `env` property, structure each environment variable as a key-value
   pair where the key is the environment variable name and the value is the
   environment variable value (string-formatted).
   For example, to configure environment variables for the Garbage collector:

   #### AppInstance ####

   ```
   apiVersion: kubecfg.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: AppInstance
   metadata:
     name: influxdb
     namespace: influxdb
   spec:
     package:
       # ...
       spec:
         components:
           garbage-collector:
             template:
               containers:
                 iox:
                   env:
                     INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF: '6h'
                     INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_PARQUETFILE_CUTOFF: '6h'
   ```

   ```
   # ...
   components:
     garbage-collector:
       template:
         containers:
           iox:
             env:
               INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF: '6h'
               INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_PARQUETFILE_CUTOFF: '6h'
   ```

3. Apply the configuration changes to your cluster and add or update
   environment variables in each component.

   #### AppInstance ####

   ```
   kubectl apply \
     --filename myinfluxdb.yml \
     --namespace influxdb
   ```

   ```
   helm upgrade \
     influxdata/influxdb3-clustered \
     -f ./values.yml \
     --namespace influxdb
   ```

#### Update environment variables instead of removing them

Most configuration settings that can be overridden by environment variables have
default values that are used if the environment variable is unset. Removing
environment variables from your `AppInstance` resource configuration will not
remove those environment variables entirely; instead, they will revert to their
default settings. To revert to the default settings, simply unset the
environment variable or update the value in your `AppInstance` resource to the
default value.

In the preceding example, the `INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF` environment
variable is set to `6h`. If you remove `INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF` from
the `env` property, the cutoff reverts to its default setting of `30d`.

[](#view-example-of-environment-variables-in-all-components)

View example of environment variables in all components

#### AppInstance ####

```yaml
apiVersion: kubecfg.dev/v1alpha1
kind: AppInstance
metadata:
  name: influxdb
  namespace: influxdb
spec:
  package:
    # ...
    spec:
      components:
        ingester:
          template:
            containers:
              iox:
                env:
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_WAL_ROTATION_PERIOD_SECONDS: '360'
        querier:
          template:
            containers:
              iox:
                env:
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_EXEC_MEM_POOL_BYTES: '10737418240' # 10GiB
        router:
          template:
            containers:
              iox:
                env:
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_MAX_HTTP_REQUESTS: '5000'
        compactor:
          template:
            containers:
              iox:
                env:
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_EXEC_MEM_POOL_PERCENT: '80'
        garbage-collector:
          template:
            containers:
              iox:
                env:
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF: '6h'
                  INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_PARQUETFILE_CUTOFF: '6h'
```

```yaml
# ...
components:
  ingester:
    template:
      containers:
        iox:
          env:
            INFLUXDB_IOX_WAL_ROTATION_PERIOD_SECONDS: '360'
  querier:
    template:
      containers:
        iox:
          env:
            INFLUXDB_IOX_EXEC_MEM_POOL_BYTES: '10737418240' # 10GiB
  router:
    template:
      containers:
        iox:
          env:
            INFLUXDB_IOX_MAX_HTTP_REQUESTS: '5000'
  compactor:
    template:
      containers:
        iox:
          env:
            INFLUXDB_IOX_EXEC_MEM_POOL_PERCENT: '80'
  garbage-collector:
    template:
      containers:
        iox:
          env:
            INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_OBJECTSTORE_CUTOFF: '6h'
            INFLUXDB_IOX_GC_PARQUETFILE_CUTOFF: '6h'
```