---
title: Get started with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
description: InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is a time series database built on InfluxDB 3 Core open source. It is designed to handle high write and query loads using a diskless architecture that scales horizontally. Learn how to use and leverage InfluxDB in use cases such as monitoring metrics, IoT data, and events.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/
estimated_tokens: 1322
product: InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
version: enterprise
publisher: InfluxData
canonical: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/
date: '2025-11-18T17:43:02-05:00'
lastmod: '2025-11-18T17:43:02-05:00'
---

This guide walks through the basic steps of getting started with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise,
including the following:

1. [Set up InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/setup/)
2. [Create a multi-node cluster](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/multi-server/)
3. [Write data to InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/write/)
4. [Query data in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/query/)
5. [Migrate from InfluxDB v1 or v2](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/migrate-from-influxdb-v1-v2/)
6. [Process data in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/process/)

#### Find support for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise

The [InfluxDB Discord server](https://discord.gg/9zaNCW2PRT) is the best place to find support for InfluxDB 3 Core and InfluxDB 3 Enterprise.
For other InfluxDB versions, see the [Support and feedback](#bug-reports-and-feedback) options.

## Data model

The InfluxDB 3 Enterprise server contains logical databases; databases contain
tables; and tables are comprised of columns.

Compared to previous versions of InfluxDB, you can think of a database as an
InfluxDB v2 `bucket` in v2 or an InfluxDB v1 `db/retention_policy`.
A `table` is equivalent to an InfluxDB v1 and v2 `measurement`.

Columns in a table represent time, tags, and fields. Columns can be one of the
following types:

* String dictionary (tag)
* `int64` (field)
* `float64` (field)
* `uint64` (field)
* `bool` (field)
* `string` (field)
* `time` (time with nanosecond precision)

In InfluxDB 3 Enterprise, every table has a primary key–the ordered set of tags and the time–for its data.
The primary key uniquely identifies each and determines the sort order for all
Parquet files related to the table. When you create a table, either through an
explicit call or by writing data into a table for the first time, it sets the
primary key to the tags in the order they arrived.
Although InfluxDB is still a *schema-on-write* database, the tag column
definitions for a table are immutable.

Tags should hold unique identifying information like `sensor_id`, `building_id`,
or `trace_id`. All other data should be stored as fields.

## Tools to use

The following table compares tools that you can use to interact with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise.
This tutorial covers many of the recommended tools.

|                                        Tool                                        |Administration|Write|Query|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|-----|-----|
|       **[`influxdb3` CLI](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/cli/influxdb3/)**        |    **✓**     |**✓**|**✓**|
|           **[InfluxDB HTTP API](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/api/)**            |    **✓**     |**✓**|**✓**|
|                  **[InfluxDB 3 Explorer](/influxdb3/explorer/)**                   |    **✓**     |**✓**|**✓**|
|[InfluxDB 3 client libraries](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/client-libraries/v3/) |      \-      |**✓**|**✓**|
|[InfluxDB v2 client libraries](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/client-libraries/v2/)|      \-      |**✓**| \-  |
|[InfluxDB v1 client libraries](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/client-libraries/v1/)|      \-      |**✓**|**✓**|
|           [InfluxDB 3 processing engine](/influxdb3/enterprise/plugins/)           |              |**✓**|**✓**|
|                             [Telegraf](/telegraf/v1/)                              |      \-      |**✓**| \-  |
|                           [Chronograf](/chronograf/v1/)                            |      \-      | \-  | \-  |
|                                    `influx` CLI                                    |      \-      | \-  | \-  |
|                                  `influxctl` CLI                                   |      \-      | \-  | \-  |
|                            InfluxDB v2.x user interface                            |      \-      | \-  | \-  |
|                               **Third-party tools**                                |              |     |     |
|                                 Flight SQL clients                                 |      \-      | \-  |**✓**|
|              [Grafana](/influxdb3/enterprise/visualize-data/grafana/)              |      \-      | \-  |**✓**|

[Set up InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/setup/)

#### Related

* [Query system data](/influxdb3/enterprise/admin/query-system-data/)
* [Write data to InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/write-data/)
* [Query data in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise](/influxdb3/enterprise/query-data/)
| Tool | Administration | Write | Query |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Tool | Administration | Write | Query |
| influxdb3  CLI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| InfluxDB HTTP API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| InfluxDB 3 Explorer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| InfluxDB 3 client libraries | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| InfluxDB v2 client libraries | - | ✓ | - |
| InfluxDB v1 client libraries | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| InfluxDB 3 processing engine |  | ✓ | ✓ |
| Telegraf | - | ✓ | - |
| Chronograf | - | - | - |
| influx  CLI | - | - | - |
| influxctl  CLI | - | - | - |
| InfluxDB v2.x user interface | - | - | - |
| Third-party tools |  |  |  |
| Flight SQL clients | - | - | ✓ |
| Grafana | - | - | ✓ |