influxdb3 serve

The influxdb3 serve command starts the InfluxDB 3 Enterprise server.

Usage

influxdb3 serve [OPTIONS]

Required Parameters

• node-id: A unique identifier for your server instance. Must be unique for any hosts sharing the same object store.
• cluster-id: A unique identifier for your cluster. Must be different from any node-id in your cluster.
• object-store: Determines where time series data is stored.
• Other object store parameters depending on the selected object-store type.

influxdb3 --num-io-threads=8 serve --node-id=node0 --cluster-id=cluster0 --verbose

Options

Option environment variables

You can use environment variables to define most influxdb3 serve options. For more information, see Configuration options.

Quick-Start Mode

For development, testing, and home use, you can start InfluxDB 3 Enterprise by running influxdb3 without the serve subcommand or any configuration parameters. The system automatically generates required values:

• node-id: {hostname}-node (fallback: primary-node)
• cluster-id: {hostname}-cluster (fallback: primary-cluster)
• object-store: file
• data-dir: ~/.influxdb

The system displays warning messages showing the auto-generated identifiers:

Using auto-generated node id: mylaptop-node. For production deployments, explicitly set --node-id
Using auto-generated cluster id: mylaptop-cluster. For production deployments, explicitly set --cluster-id

Quick-start examples

# Zero-config startup
influxdb3

# Override specific defaults
influxdb3 --object-store memory

# Use environment variables to override defaults
INFLUXDB3_NODE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX=my-node influxdb3

Configuration precedence: CLI flags > environment variables > auto-generated defaults

For more information about quick-start mode, see Get started.

Examples

• Run the InfluxDB 3 server
• Run the InfluxDB 3 server with extra verbose logging
• Run InfluxDB 3 with debug logging using LOG_FILTER

In the examples below, replace the following:

• my-host-01: a unique string that identifies your InfluxDB 3 Enterprise server.
• my-cluster-01: a unique string that identifies your InfluxDB 3 Enterprise cluster. The value you use must be different from --node-id values in the cluster.

Run the InfluxDB 3 server

influxdb3 serve \
  --object-store file \
  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
  --node-id 
my-host-01
 \
  --cluster-id 
my-cluster-01

Run a server in specific modes

influxdb3 serve \
  --object-store file \
  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
  --node-id 
my-host-01
 \
  --cluster-id 
my-cluster-01
 \
  --plugin-dir ~/.influxdb3/plugins \
  --mode ingest,query,process

Run a server specifically for compacting data

influxdb3 serve \
  --object-store file \
  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
  --node-id 
my-host-01
 \
  --cluster-id 
my-cluster-01
 \
  --mode compact 

Run the InfluxDB 3 server with extra verbose logging

influxdb3 serve \
  --object-store file \
  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
  --node-id 
my-host-01
 \
  --cluster-id 
my-cluster-01
  --verbose

Run InfluxDB 3 with debug logging using LOG_FILTER

LOG_FILTER=debug influxdb3 serve \
  --object-store file \
  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
  --node-id 
my-host-01
 \
  --cluster-id 
my-cluster-01

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Error: “cluster-id cannot match any node-id in the cluster”
  Ensure your --cluster-id value is different from all --node-id values in your cluster.

• Error: “Failed to connect to object store”
  Verify your --object-store setting and ensure all required parameters for that storage type are provided.

• Permission errors when using S3, Google Cloud, or Azure storage
  Check that your authentication credentials are correct and have sufficient permissions.