Install Telegraf
This page provides directions for installing, starting, and configuring Telegraf.
To install Telegraf, do the following:
Installation of the Telegraf package may require root or administrator privileges to complete successfully.
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.
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.
Recommended:: Before you open and install packages and downloaded files, use SHA
checksum verification and GPG signature verification to ensure the files are
intact and authentic.
SHA checksum and GPG signature verification are complementary checks.
For some Linux platforms, the installation instructions include steps to verify downloaded packages and binaries.
For more information, see the following:
Verify download integrity using SHA-256
For each released binary, InfluxData publishes the SHA checksum that
you can use to verify that the downloaded file is intact and hasn’t been corrupted.
To use the SHA checksum to verify the downloaded file, do the following:
In the downloads page,
select the Version and Platform for your download, and then copy
the SHA256 checksum for the file.
Compute the SHA checksum of the downloaded file and compare it to the
checksum you copied in the preceding step–for example, enter the following
command in your terminal.
# Use 2 spaces to separate the checksum from the filename
echo "<SHA256_CHECKSUM> telegraf-1.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz" \
| sha256sum -c -
Replace the following:
<SHA256_CHECKSUM>:
the SHA256: checksum value that you copied from the downloads page
The following sample code uses curl to download Telegraf, and then
uses sha256 to compare it to the checksum:
curl -s --location -O \
"https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-${telegraf_latest_patches_v1}_linux_amd64.tar.gz"
echo "260bc3170dbd6cce67575c1215a0b89b8447945106e2943d74e617d06b750c03
telegraf-${telegraf_latest_patches_v1}_linux_amd64.tar.gz" \
| sha256sum -c -
Replace the following:
260bc3170dbd6cce67575c1215a0b89b8447945106e2943d74e617d06b750c03:
the SHA256: checksum value that you copied from the downloads page
If the checksums match, the output is the following; otherwise, an error message.
telegraf-1.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz: OK
Verify file integrity and authenticity using GPG
InfluxData uses GPG (GnuPG) to sign released software and provides
public key and encrypted private key (.key file) pairs that you can use to
verify the integrity of packages and binaries from the InfluxData repository.
Before running the install sample code, substitute the key-pair compatible with your OS version:
For newer OS releases (for example, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer, Debian Buster
and newer) that support subkey verification:
- Private key file:
influxdata-archive.key - Public key:
943666881a1b8d9b849b74caebf02d3465d6beb716510d86a39f6c8e8dac7515
For older versions (for example, CentOS/RHEL 7, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, or Debian
Stretch) that don’t support subkeys for verification:
For security, InfluxData periodically rotates keys and publishes the new key pairs.
Debian and Ubuntu users can install the latest stable version of Telegraf using
the apt-get package manager.
Run the following commands using apt-get to install Telegraf from the InfluxData
repository:
curl --silent --location -O \
https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive.key \
&& echo "943666881a1b8d9b849b74caebf02d3465d6beb716510d86a39f6c8e8dac7515 influxdata-archive.key" \
| sha256sum -c - && cat influxdata-archive.key \
| gpg --dearmor \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive.gpg > /dev/null \
&& echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdata-archive.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 --silent --location -O \
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
To manually install the Debian package from a .deb file:
Download the latest Telegraf .deb release
from the downloads page.
Run the following command (making sure to supply the correct version number
for the downloaded file):
sudo dpkg -i telegraf_1.33.0-1_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 yum configuration:
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/influxdata.repo
[influxdata]
name = InfluxData Repository - Stable
baseurl = https://repos.influxdata.com/stable/$basearch/main
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-influxdata
EOF
Enter the following command to install telegraf from 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 zypper configuration:
# add go repository
zypper ar -f obs://devel:languages:go/ go
Enter 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 binary files for Linux AMD:
curl -s --location -O \
https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz \
&& echo "260bc3170dbd6cce67575c1215a0b89b8447945106e2943d74e617d06b750c03
telegraf-1.33.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz" \
| sha256sum -c -
Replace the following:
260bc3170dbd6cce67575c1215a0b89b8447945106e2943d74e617d06b750c03: the SHA checksum from the downloads page
Choose from the following options to install Telegraf binary files for Linux ARM:
curl -s --location -O \
https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.33.0_linux_arm64.tar.gz \
&& echo "f0d8ccae539afa04b171d5268dbab21eef58bc51b5437689e347619e2097c824
telegraf-1.33.0_linux_arm64.tar.gz" \
| sha256sum -c -
Replace the following:
f0d8ccae539afa04b171d5268dbab21eef58bc51b5437689e347619e2097c824: the SHA checksum from the downloads page
Choose from the following options to install Telegraf for macOS:
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.
telegraf (Homebrew) isn’t a static binary.telegraf (Homebrew) works with the Telegraf CPU plugin (due to Homebrew support for Cgo).
The .dmg builds available on the downloads page don’t support the CPU plugin.
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 telegraf
The path where brew installs the telegraf.conf configuration 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
Choose one of the following methods to start Telegraf and begin collecting and processing metrics:
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
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
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-1.33.0_windows_amd64.zip `
-UseBasicParsing `
-OutFile telegraf-1.33.0_windows_amd64.zip
Expand-Archive .\telegraf-1.33.0_windows_amd64.zip `
-DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\'
Choose one of the following steps to place your telegraf.exe and telegraf.conf files in C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf:
Move the telegraf.exe and telegraf.conf files from
C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.33.0
to the parent directory C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf–for example:
cd "C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf";
mv .\telegraf-1.33.0\telegraf.* .
Or, create a Windows symbolic link (Symlink) for
C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf that 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_services plugin 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 --config option, pass the absolute path of the telegraf.conf configuration 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 --test
When run in test mode (using the --test flag), 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
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.
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 |
The telegraf config command lets you generate a configuration file from
Telegraf’s plugin list.
To generate a configuration file with default input and output plugins enabled,
enter the following command in your terminal:
telegraf config > telegraf.conf
.\telegraf.exe config > telegraf.conf
To generate a configuration file that contains settings for only specific plugins,
use the --input-filter and --output-filter options to
specify input plugins
and output plugins–for example:
telegraf \
--input-filter cpu
:http
\
--output-filter influxdb_v2
:file
\
config > telegraf.conf
.\telegraf.exe `
--input-filter cpu
:http
`
--output-filter influxdb_v2
:file
`
config > telegraf.conf
For more advanced configuration details, see the
configuration documentation.
Use the Telegraf custom builder tool to compile Telegraf with only the plugins you need and reduce the Telegraf binary size.
- Prerequisites
- Build the custom builder tool
- Run the custom builder to create a
telegraf binary
Clone the Telegraf repository and then change into the repository
directory–for example, enter the following command in your terminal:
git clone https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf.git && cd ./telegraf
To build the Telegraf custom builder tool, enter the following command:
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.
./tools/custom_builder/custom_builder --config /etc/telegraf.conf
./tools/custom_builder/custom_builder \
--config /etc/telegraf.conf \
--config-dir /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
./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.
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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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.
