Install and run InfluxDB 3 Explorer

Use Docker to install and run InfluxDB 3 Explorer.

• Quick start
• Installation methods
• Configuration options
  • Network exposure and access control
  • Persist data across restarts
  • Pre-configure InfluxDB connections
  • Enable TLS/SSL (HTTPS)
    • TLS and certificate verification options
    • Use self-signed certificates
  • Choose operational mode
• Advanced configuration
  • Environment variables
  • Volume reference
  • Port reference
• Complete examples

Quick start

Get InfluxDB 3 Explorer running in minutes:

1. Run the Explorer container:

   docker run --detach \
     --name influxdb3-explorer \
     --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
     influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

2. Access the Explorer UI at http://localhost:8888

3. Configure your InfluxDB connection in the UI

Installation methods

Prerequisites

Install Docker or Docker Desktop if you haven’t already.

Basic setup

docker pull influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app-root/config:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

docker-compose up -d

Run Explorer against a production instance

Use this setup to run Explorer with persistence, admin mode, and automatic image updates when administering a production InfluxDB 3 instance.

docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --pull always \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
  --volume $(pwd)/db:/db:rw \
  --volume $(pwd)/config:/app-root/config:ro \
  --env SESSION_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32) \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0 \
  --mode=admin

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    pull_policy: always
    command: ["--mode=admin"]
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./db:/db:rw
      - ./config:/app-root/config:ro
      - ./ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
    environment:
      SESSION_SECRET_KEY: ${SESSION_SECRET_KEY:-changeme123456789012345678901234}
    restart: unless-stopped

SESSION_SECRET_KEY=your_32_char_hex_string_here

docker-compose up -d

Configuration options

Network exposure and access control

Explorer holds the InfluxDB connection details and token that you configure in it. Access to the Explorer interface is effectively access to that InfluxDB connection, so treat reaching the Explorer port the same as holding the token.

Use the following practices to control access:

• Bind to the loopback interface for local use. The examples in this guide publish Explorer as 127.0.0.1:8888:8080, which makes it reachable only from the same machine. To reach Explorer from your browser on that machine, open http://localhost:8888.
• Expose Explorer deliberately, not by default. To reach Explorer from another host, replace 127.0.0.1 with the specific interface address you intend to use (for example, 192.0.2.10:8888:8080). Publishing without an address (8888:8080) binds to all interfaces (0.0.0.0).
• Account for Docker and the host firewall. Docker publishes ports by adding its own firewall rules, which can take effect even when a host firewall such as ufw or firewalld is configured to block the port. Verify reachability from another host rather than assuming the host firewall applies.
• Put authentication in front of remote access. If you need to reach Explorer over a network, run it on the loopback interface and place an authenticating reverse proxy with TLS in front of it (for example, NGINX or Caddy).
• Prefer least-privilege tokens. The token you configure in Explorer determines what anyone with access to Explorer can do. Use a token scoped to what the task requires.

Persist data across restarts

InfluxDB 3 Explorer stores application data in a SQLite database. To persist this data across container restarts:

1. Create a local directory:

   mkdir -m 700 ./db

2. Mount the directory when running the container:

   Docker Docker Compose

   docker run --detach \
     --name influxdb3-explorer \
     --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
     --volume $(pwd)/db:/db:rw \
     influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

   version: '3.8'
   
   services:
     explorer:
       image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
       container_name: influxdb3-explorer
       ports:
         - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"
       volumes:
         - ./db:/db:rw
       restart: unless-stopped

Set file permissions for upgrades

In v1.7.0+, the Explorer container runs as a non-root user (influxui, uid 1500) for improved security. Because earlier versions ran as root, existing mounted volumes are owned by root and the new non-root process can’t access them.

If you start the upgraded container without updating file ownership, it exits with the following error:

ERROR: Directory '/db' is owned by root and not accessible to the 'influxui' user.

To prevent or resolve this error, change ownership of your mounted directories to uid 1500 before you start the container. For example:

sudo chown -R 1500:1500 /path/to/your/db
sudo chown -R 1500:1500 /path/to/your/config

After you update ownership, restart the container. Fresh installations are unaffected.

Pre-configure InfluxDB connections

Instead of configuring connections through the UI, you can pre-define connection settings using a config.json file. This is useful for:

• Automated deployments
• Shared team configurations
• Quick setup for known environments

1. Create a config.json file:

   mkdir -p config
   cat > config/config.json << 'EOF'
   {
     "DEFAULT_INFLUX_SERVER": "http://host.docker.internal:8181",
     "DEFAULT_INFLUX_DATABASE": "mydb",
     "DEFAULT_API_TOKEN": "your-token-here",
     "DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME": "Local InfluxDB 3"
   }
   EOF

   Customize the following properties for your InfluxDB 3 instance:

   • DEFAULT_INFLUX_SERVER: your InfluxDB 3 Core or Enterprise server URL
   • DEFAULT_INFLUX_DATABASE: the name of your InfluxDB 3 Core or Enterprise database
   • DEFAULT_API_TOKEN: your InfluxDB 3 Core or Enterprise authorization token with the necessary permissions to access your server
   • DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME: a display name (only used by Explorer) for your InfluxDB 3 Core or Enterprise server

   When to use host.docker.internal

   If your InfluxDB 3 instance is running in Docker (not the same container as Explorer), use host.docker.internal as your server host to allow the Explorer container to connect to the InfluxDB container on the host–for example:

   "DEFAULT_INFLUX_SERVER": "http://host.docker.internal:8181"

   • If both Explorer and InfluxDB are in the same Docker network, use the container name instead.
   • If InfluxDB is running natively on your machine (not in Docker), use localhost.

   For more information, see the Docker networking documentation.

2. Mount the configuration directory:

   Docker Docker Compose

   docker run --detach \
     --name influxdb3-explorer \
     --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
     --volume $(pwd)/config:/app-root/config:ro \
     influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

   version: '3.8'
   
   services:
     explorer:
       image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
       container_name: influxdb3-explorer
       ports:
         - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"
       volumes:
         - ./config:/app-root/config:ro
       restart: unless-stopped

Enable TLS/SSL (HTTPS)

To enable TLS/SSL for secure connections:

1. Create SSL directory and add certificate files:

   mkdir -m 755 ./ssl
   # Copy your certificate files to the ssl directory
   cp /path/to/server.crt ./ssl/
   cp /path/to/server.key ./ssl/

   Required files:

   • Certificate: server.crt or fullchain.pem
   • Private key: server.key

2. Run the container with SSL enabled:

   Docker Docker Compose

   docker run --detach \
     --name influxdb3-explorer \
     --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8443 \
     --volume $(pwd)/ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro \
     influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

   version: '3.8'
   
   services:
     explorer:
       image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
       container_name: influxdb3-explorer
       ports:
         - "127.0.0.1:8888:8443"
       volumes:
         - ./ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
       restart: unless-stopped

3. Access the Explorer UI at https://localhost:8888

TLS and certificate verification options

Use the following environment variables to configure TLS and certificate verification:

• NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS - Path to custom CA certificate file inside container (recommended).

  This option adds an intermediate or custom CA certificate to the Node.js trusted certificate store and is required when InfluxDB uses certificates signed by an internal or private CA.

  • Format: PEM format certificate file
  • Example: -e NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/ca-certs/ca-bundle.crt

  This is the native Node.js environment variable for custom CAs.

• CA_CERT_PATH - Alternative to NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS (convenience alias)

  • Example: -e CA_CERT_PATH=/ca-certs/ca-bundle.crt

  Use either NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS or CA_CERT_PATH; not both. CA_CERT_PATH aliases NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS.

Use self-signed certificates

To configure Explorer to trust self-signed or custom CA certificates when connecting to InfluxDB:

1. Create a directory for CA certificates:

   mkdir -p ./ca-certs

2. Copy your CA certificate to the directory:

   cp /path/to/your-ca.pem ./ca-certs/

3. Mount the CA certificate directory and set the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable:

docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8443 \
  --volume $(pwd)/db:/db:rw \
  --volume $(pwd)/config:/app-root/config:ro \
  --volume $(pwd)/ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro \
  --volume $(pwd)/ca-certs:/ca-certs:ro \
  --env SESSION_SECRET_KEY=your-secure-secret-key-here \
  --env NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/ca-certs/your-ca.pem \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0 \
  --mode=admin

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    pull_policy: always
    command: ["--mode=admin"]
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8443"
    volumes:
      - ./db:/db:rw
      - ./config:/app-root/config:ro
      - ./ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
      - ./ca-certs:/ca-certs:ro
    environment:
      SESSION_SECRET_KEY: ${SESSION_SECRET_KEY:-your-secure-secret-key-here}
      NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS: /ca-certs/your-ca.pem
    restart: unless-stopped

Choose operational mode

InfluxDB 3 Explorer supports two operational modes:

• Query mode (default): Read-only UI for querying data
• Admin mode: Full UI with administrative capabilities

Set the mode using the --mode parameter:

# Query mode (default)
docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0 \
  --mode=query

# Admin mode
docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0 \
  --mode=admin

version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    # For query mode (default), omit the command
    # For admin mode, add:
    command: ["--mode=admin"]
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

Advanced configuration

Environment variables

openssl rand -hex 32

Volume reference

Port reference

Complete examples

Full configuration with all features

# Create required directories
mkdir -m 700 ./db
mkdir -m 755 ./config ./ssl

# Generate session secret
export SESSION_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# Create configuration
cat > config/config.json << 'EOF'
{
  "DEFAULT_INFLUX_SERVER": "http://host.docker.internal:8181",
  "DEFAULT_INFLUX_DATABASE": "production",
  "DEFAULT_API_TOKEN": "your-production-token",
  "DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME": "Production InfluxDB 3"
}
EOF

# Run Explorer with all features
docker run --detach \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --pull always \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8443 \
  --volume $(pwd)/db:/db:rw \
  --volume $(pwd)/config:/app-root/config:ro \
  --volume $(pwd)/ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro \
  --env SESSION_SECRET_KEY=$SESSION_SECRET \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0 \
  --mode=admin

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    pull_policy: always
    command: ["--mode=admin"]
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8443"
    volumes:
      - ./db:/db:rw
      - ./config:/app-root/config:ro
      - ./ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
    environment:
      SESSION_SECRET_KEY: ${SESSION_SECRET_KEY}
    restart: unless-stopped

SESSION_SECRET_KEY=your_32_char_hex_string_here

docker-compose up -d

Development setup (minimal)

docker run --rm \
  --name influxdb3-explorer \
  --publish 127.0.0.1:8888:8080 \
  influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  explorer:
    image: influxdata/influxdb3-ui:1.8.0
    container_name: influxdb3-explorer
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8888:8080"