Use Telegraf to write CSV data

Use the Telegraf file input plugin to read and parse CSV data into line protocol and write it to InfluxDB 3 Core. Telegraf is a plugin-based agent that collects metrics from different sources and writes them to specified destinations.

• Configure Telegraf to read CSV files
• Configure Telegraf to write to InfluxDB
  • Other Telegraf configuration options

Configure Telegraf to read CSV files

1. Add and enable the inputs.file plugin in your Telegraf configuration file.
2. Use the files option to specify the list of CSV files to read. CSV files must be accessible by the Telegraf agent.
3. Set the data_format option to csv.
4. Define all other csv_ configuration options specific to the CSV data you want to write to InfluxDB 3 Core. For detailed information about each of the CSV format configuration options, see CSV input data format.

[[inputs.file]]
  files = ["/path/to/example.csv"]
  data_format = "csv"
  csv_header_row_count = 0
  csv_column_names = []
  csv_column_types = []
  csv_skip_rows = 0
  csv_metadata_rows = 0
  csv_metadata_separators = [":", "="]
  csv_metadata_trim_set = ""
  csv_skip_columns = 0
  csv_delimiter = ","
  csv_comment = ""
  csv_trim_space = false
  csv_tag_columns = []
  csv_measurement_column = ""
  csv_timestamp_column = ""
  csv_timestamp_format = ""
  csv_timezone = ""
  csv_skip_values = []
  csv_skip_errors = false
  csv_reset_mode = "none"

Configure Telegraf to write to InfluxDB

To send data to InfluxDB 3 Core, enable and configure the influxdb_v2 output plugin in your telegraf.conf.

[[inputs.file]]
  files = ["/path/to/example.csv"]
  data_format = "csv"
  csv_header_row_count = 0
  csv_column_names = []
  csv_column_types = []
  csv_skip_rows = 0
  csv_metadata_rows = 0
  csv_metadata_separators = [":", "="]
  csv_metadata_trim_set = ""
  csv_skip_columns = 0
  csv_delimiter = ","
  csv_comment = ""
  csv_trim_space = false
  csv_tag_columns = []
  csv_measurement_column = ""
  csv_timestamp_column = ""
  csv_timestamp_format = ""
  csv_timezone = ""
  csv_skip_values = []
  csv_skip_errors = false
  csv_reset_mode = "none"

[[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
  urls = ["http://localhost:8181"]
  token = "
AUTH_TOKEN
"
  organization = ""
  bucket = "
DATABASE_NAME
"
  content_encoding = "gzip"

Replace the following:

• DATABASE_NAME: the name of the database to write data to

• AUTH_TOKEN: your InfluxDB 3 Core authorization token. Store this in a secret store or environment variable to avoid exposing the raw token string.

  While in beta, InfluxDB 3 Core does not require an authorization token. For the token option, provide an arbitrary, non-empty token string.

  Store your authorization token as an environment variable

  Avoid storing a plain text token in your Telegraf configuration file. Store the token as an environment variable and then reference the environment variable in your configuration file using string interpolation. For example:

  [[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
    urls = ["http://localhost:8181"]
    token = "${INFLUX_TOKEN}"
    # ...
  

  Change InfluxDB URL

  Change InfluxDB URL

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Restart the Telegraf agent to apply the configuration change and write the CSV data to InfluxDB 3 Core.

Other Telegraf configuration options

The preceding examples describe Telegraf configurations necessary for writing to InfluxDB 3 Core. The influxdb_v2 output plugin provides several other configuration options. For more information, see the influxdb_v2 plugin options on GitHub.