In this tutorial we will learn how to install and configure the InfluxDB database on a computer running on the Ubuntu 16.04 distribution. It is possible to install InfluxDB on (almost) all Linux distributions without too much difficulty. For other distribution, you can consult the InfluxData website here. InfluxDB accommodates a very modest configuration. I recycled an old mini-PC based Intel Atom with only 2GB of RAM.

Add Packages

Since Ubuntu is built from the Debian distribution, we will use the apt-get package manager to install InfluxDB. If you are using Ubuntu, start by adding packages like this

curl -sL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -
source /etc/lsb-release
echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/${DISTRIB_ID,,} ${DISTRIB_CODENAME} stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

If you are a Debian user

curl -sL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -
source /etc/os-release
test $VERSION_ID = "7" && echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/debian wheezy stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list
test $VERSION_ID = "8" && echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/debian jessie stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

Install InfluxDB on Ubuntu or Debian

Now you can use the apt-get command for installation.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install influxdb

Configuring InfluxDB

To see the current configuration, just run the influxDB config command. The default configuration looks like this after installation.

$ influxd config
Merging with configuration at: /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf
reporting-disabled = false
bind-address = ":8088"

[meta]
  dir = "/var/lib/influxdb/meta"
  retention-autocreate = true
  logging-enabled = true

[data]
  dir = "/var/lib/influxdb/data"
  wal-dir = "/var/lib/influxdb/wal"
  query-log-enabled = true
  cache-max-memory-size = 1073741824
  cache-snapshot-memory-size = 26214400
  cache-snapshot-write-cold-duration = "10m0s"
  compact-full-write-cold-duration = "4h0m0s"
  max-series-per-database = 1000000
  max-values-per-tag = 100000
  trace-logging-enabled = false

[coordinator]
  write-timeout = "10s"
  max-concurrent-queries = 0
  query-timeout = "0s"
  log-queries-after = "0s"
  max-select-point = 0
  max-select-series = 0
  max-select-buckets = 0

[retention]
  enabled = true
  check-interval = "30m0s"

[shard-precreation]
  enabled = true
  check-interval = "10m0s"
  advance-period = "30m0s"

[admin]
  enabled = false
  bind-address = ":8083"
  https-enabled = false
  https-certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb.pem"

[monitor]
  store-enabled = true
  store-database = "_internal"
  store-interval = "10s"

[subscriber]
  enabled = true
  http-timeout = "30s"
  insecure-skip-verify = false
  ca-certs = ""
  write-concurrency = 40
  write-buffer-size = 1000

[http]
  enabled = true
  bind-address = ":8086"
  auth-enabled = false
  log-enabled = true
  write-tracing = false
  pprof-enabled = true
  https-enabled = false
  https-certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb.pem"
  https-private-key = ""
  max-row-limit = 10000
  max-connection-limit = 0
  shared-secret = ""
  realm = "InfluxDB"
  unix-socket-enabled = false
  bind-socket = "/var/run/influxdb.sock"

[[graphite]]
  enabled = false
  bind-address = ":2003"
  database = "graphite"
  retention-policy = ""
  protocol = "tcp"
  batch-size = 5000
  batch-pending = 10
  batch-timeout = "1s"
  consistency-level = "one"
  separator = "."
  udp-read-buffer = 0

[[collectd]]
  enabled = false
  bind-address = ":25826"
  database = "collectd"
  retention-policy = ""
  batch-size = 5000
  batch-pending = 10
  batch-timeout = "10s"
  read-buffer = 0
  typesdb = "/usr/share/collectd/types.db"

[[opentsdb]]
  enabled = false
  bind-address = ":4242"
  database = "opentsdb"
  retention-policy = ""
  consistency-level = "one"
  tls-enabled = false
  certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb.pem"
  batch-size = 1000
  batch-pending = 5
  batch-timeout = "1s"
  log-point-errors = true

[[udp]]
  enabled = false
  bind-address = ":8089"
  database = "udp"
  retention-policy = ""
  batch-size = 5000
  batch-pending = 10
  read-buffer = 0
  batch-timeout = "1s"
  precision = ""

[continuous_queries]
  log-enabled = true
  enabled = true
  run-interval = "1s"

The default configuration is suitable for most common applications. If you need to modify parameters (port, security …), the configuration file to be edited is located in the directory /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf

sudo nano /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf

Start InfluxDB

If you are on Debian 8+ or Ubuntu 15.04+, you can start InfluxDB using systemd.

sudo systemctl start influxdb

Otherwise, you start the database with the service command.

sudo service influxdb start

Start InfluxDB Shell

So, everything is ready, it only remains to boot the Shell with the command influx to create your first database. To find out how Shell works and how to get started with InfluxDB, I refer you to this article.

$ influx
Visit https://enterprise.influxdata.com to register for updates, InfluxDB server management, and monitoring.
Connected to http://localhost:8086 version 1.1.0
InfluxDB shell version: 1.1.0
> ^C
>