Install Telegraf
This page provides directions for installing, starting, and configuring Telegraf. To install Telegraf, do the following:
Download
Download the latest Telegraf release at the InfluxData download page.
Requirements
Installation of the Telegraf package may require root or administrator privileges to complete successfully.
Networking
Telegraf offers multiple service input plugins that may
require custom ports.
Modify port mappings through the configuration file (telegraf.conf).
For Linux distributions, this file is located at /etc/telegraf for default installations.
For Windows distributions, the configuration file is located in the directory where you unzipped the Telegraf ZIP archive.
The default location is C:\InfluxData\telegraf.
NTP
Telegraf uses a host’s local time in UTC to assign timestamps to data. Use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize time between hosts. If hosts’ clocks aren’t synchronized with NTP, the timestamps on the data might be inaccurate.
Install
Debian and Ubuntu users can install the latest stable version of Telegraf using the apt-get package manager.
Run the following commands to install Telegraf from the InfluxData repository:
# influxdata-archive_compat.key GPG Fingerprint: 9D539D90D3328DC7D6C8D3B9D8FF8E1F7DF8B07E
wget -q https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key
echo '393e8779c89ac8d958f81f942f9ad7fb82a25e133faddaf92e15b16e6ac9ce4c influxdata-archive_compat.key' | sha256sum -c && cat influxdata-archive_compat.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive_compat.gpg > /dev/null
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive_compat.gpg] https://repos.influxdata.com/debian stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdata.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install telegraf
# influxdata-archive_compat.key GPG Fingerprint: 9D539D90D3328DC7D6C8D3B9D8FF8E1F7DF8B07E
curl -s https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key > influxdata-archive_compat.key
echo '393e8779c89ac8d958f81f942f9ad7fb82a25e133faddaf92e15b16e6ac9ce4c influxdata-archive_compat.key' | sha256sum -c && cat influxdata-archive_compat.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive_compat.gpg > /dev/null
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive_compat.gpg] https://repos.influxdata.com/debian stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdata.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install telegraf
Install from a .deb file:
To manually install the Debian package from a .deb file:
Download the latest Telegraf
.debrelease from the Telegraf section of the downloads page.Run the following command (making sure to supply the correct version number for the downloaded file):
sudo dpkg -i telegraf_1.28.1-1_amd64.deb
To learn how to manually install the RPM package from a file, see the downloads page.
To use the yum package manager to install the latest stable version of Telegraf, follow these steps:
In your terminal, enter the following command to add the InfluxData repository to the
yumconfiguration:cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/influxdb.repo [influxdb] name = InfluxData Repository - Stable baseurl = https://repos.influxdata.com/stable/\$basearch/main enabled = 1 gpgcheck = 1 gpgkey = https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key EOFEnter the following command to install
telegraffrom the repository.sudo yum install telegraf
The telegraf configuration file is installed at /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf.
The openSUSE Build Service provides RPM packages for SUSE Linux.
To use the zypper package manager to install the latest stable version of Telegraf, follow these steps:
In your terminal, enter the following command to add the Go repository to the
zypperconfiguration:# add go repository zypper ar -f obs://devel:languages:go/ goEnter the following command to install
telegraf.# install latest telegraf zypper in telegraf
Telegraf is part of the FreeBSD package system.
To use the pkg package manager to install the latest stable version of Telegraf, enter the following command:
sudo pkg install telegraf
The telegraf configuration file is installed at /usr/local/etc/telegraf.conf.
Examples are installed at /usr/local/etc/telegraf.conf.sample.
Choose from the following options to install Telegraf for macOS:
- To manually install Telegraf from a file, see the downloads page.
- Install using Homebrew
Install using Homebrew
Users of macOS 10.8 and higher can install Telegraf using the Homebrew package manager.
The telegraf binary installed by Homebrew differs from the macOS .dmg builds available from the downloads page.
To install using Homebrew, do the following:
If you haven’t already, follow the instructions to install the Homebrew package manager.
Enter the following commands to update brew and install Telegraf:
brew update && brew install telegrafThe path where
brewinstalls thetelegraf.confconfiguration file depends on your system architecture:- ARM-based (Apple Silicon) systems:
/opt/homebrew/etc/telegraf.conf - Intel-based (x86_64) systems:
/usr/local/etc/telegraf.conf
- ARM-based (Apple Silicon) systems:
Choose one of the following methods to start Telegraf and begin collecting and processing metrics:
Run Telegraf in your terminal
To run telegraf in your terminal (in the foreground and not as a service), enter the following command:
telegraf -config /opt/homebrew/etc/telegraf.conf
telegraf -config /usr/local/etc/telegraf.conf
Run Telegraf as a background service
In your terminal, enter the following command to add telegraf to your system’s LaunchAgents:
ln -sfv /opt/homebrew/opt/telegraf/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/telegraf/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
The next time you login, launchd starts the telegraf service.
To immediately start the telegraf service, enter the following command:
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.telegraf.plist
Download and run Telegraf as a Windows service
Installing a Windows service requires administrative permissions. To run PowerShell as an administrator, see Launch PowerShell as administrator.
In PowerShell as an administrator, do the following:
Use the following commands to download the Telegraf Windows binary and extract its contents to
C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\:wget ` https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.28.1_windows_amd64.zip ` -UseBasicParsing ` -OutFile telegraf-1.28.1_windows_amd64.zip ` Expand-Archive .\telegraf-1.28.1_windows_amd64.zip ` -DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\'Choose one of the following steps to place your
telegraf.exeandtelegraf.conffiles inC:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf:Move the
telegraf.exeandtelegraf.conffiles fromC:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.28.1to the parent directoryC:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf–for example:cd "C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf"; mv .\telegraf-1.28.1\telegraf.* .Or, create a Windows symbolic link (Symlink) for
C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegrafthat points to the extracted directory.
The remaining instructions assume that telegraf.exe and telegraf.conf files are stored in
C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf or that you created a Symlink to point to this directory.
Optional: Enable a plugin to collect Windows-specific metrics–for example, uncomment the
inputs.win_servicesplugin configuration line:... # # Input plugin to report Windows services info. # # This plugin ONLY supports Windows [[inputs.win_services]] ...Run the following command to install Telegraf and the configuration as a Windows service. For the
--configoption, pass the absolute path of thetelegraf.confconfiguration file..\telegraf.exe --service install ` --config "C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf.conf"To test that the installation works, enter the following command:
.\telegraf.exe ` --config C:\"Program Files"\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf.conf --testWhen run in test mode (using the
--testflag), Telegraf runs once, collects metrics, outputs them to the console, and then exits. It doesn’t run processors, aggregators, or output plugins.To start collecting data, run:
.\telegraf.exe --service start
Logging and troubleshooting
When Telegraf runs as a Windows service, Telegraf logs messages to Windows event logs. If the Telegraf service fails to start, view error logs by selecting Event Viewer→Windows Logs→Application.
Windows service commands
The following commands are available:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
telegraf.exe --service install | Install telegraf as a service |
telegraf.exe --service uninstall | Remove the telegraf service |
telegraf.exe --service start | Start the telegraf service |
telegraf.exe --service stop | Stop the telegraf service |
Generate a custom configuration file
The telegraf config command lets you generate a configuration file using Telegraf’s list of plugins.
Create a configuration file with default input and output plugins
To generate a configuration file with default input and output plugins enabled, enter the following command in your terminal:
The generated file contains settings for all available plugins–some are enabled and the rest are commented out.
Create a configuration file with specific input and output plugins
To generate a configuration file that contains settings for only specific input and output plugins, specify telegraf plugin filters–for example:
telegraf \
--input-filter <pluginname>[:<pluginname>] \
--output-filter <outputname>[:<outputname>] \
config > telegraf.conf
.\telegraf.exe `
--input-filter <pluginname>[:<pluginname>] `
--output-filter <outputname>[:<outputname>] `
config > telegraf.conf
For more advanced configuration details, see the configuration documentation.
Custom-compile Telegraf
Use the Telegraf custom builder tool to compile Telegraf with only the plugins you need and reduce the Telegraf binary size.
Prerequisites
- Follow the instructions to install Go for your system.
- Create your Telegraf configuration file with the plugins you want to use.
Build the custom builder tool
Clone the Telegraf repository:
git clone https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf.gitChange directories into the top-level of the Telegraf repository:
cd telegrafBuild the Telegraf custom builder tool by entering the following command:
make build_tools
Run the custom builder to create a telegraf binary
The custom builder builds a telegraf binary with only the plugins included in the specified configuration files or directories.
Run the custom_builder tool with at least one --config or --config-directory flag to specify Telegraf configuration files to build from.
--config: accepts local file paths and URLs.--config-dir: accepts local directory paths.
You can include multiple --config and --config-dir flags.
Examples
Single Telegraf configuration
./tools/custom_builder/custom_builder --config /etc/telegraf.conf
Single Telegraf configuration and Telegraf configuration directory
./tools/custom_builder/custom_builder \
--config /etc/telegraf.conf \
--config-dir /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
Remote Telegraf configuration
./tools/custom_builder/custom_builder \
--config http://url-to-remote-telegraf/telegraf.conf
After a successful build, you can view your customized telegraf binary within the top level of your Telegraf repository.
Update your custom binary
To add or remove plugins from your customized Telegraf build, edit your configuration file, and then run the custom builder to regenerate the Telegraf binary.
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Support and feedback
Thank you for being part of our community! We welcome and encourage your feedback and bug reports for Telegraf and this documentation. To find support, use the following resources:
Customers with an annual or support contract can contact InfluxData Support.