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InfluxDB data source

InfluxDB is an open-source time series database (TSDB) developed by InfluxData. It is optimized for fast, high-availability storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operations monitoring, application metrics, IoT sensor data, and real-time analytics.

Grafana includes built-in support for InfluxDB. This topic explains options, variables, querying, and other features specific to the InfluxDB data source, which include its feature-rich code editor for queries and visual query builder.

For instructions on how to add a data source to Grafana, refer to the administration documentation. Only users with the organization administrator role can add data sources. Administrators can also configure the data source via YAML with Grafana’s provisioning system.

Once you’ve added the InfluxDB data source, you can configure it so that your Grafana instance’s users can create queries in its query editor when they build dashboards and use Explore.

Configure the data source

To access the data source configuration page:

  1. Hover the cursor over the Configuration (gear) icon.
  2. Select Data Sources.
  3. Select the InfluxDB data source.

Set the data source’s basic configuration options carefully:

NameDescription
NameSets the name you use to refer to the data source in panels and queries. We recommend something like InfluxDB-InfluxQL.
DefaultSets whether the data source is pre-selected for new panels.
URLThe HTTP protocol, IP address, and port of your InfluxDB API. InfluxDB’s default API port is 8086.
Min time interval(Optional) Refer to Min time interval.
Max series(Optional) Limits the number of series and tables that Grafana processes. Lower this number to prevent abuse, and increase it if you have many small time series and not all are shown. Defaults to 1,000.

You can also configure settings specific to the InfluxDB data source:

Min time interval

The Min time interval setting defines a lower limit for the auto group-by time interval.

This value must be formatted as a number followed by a valid time identifier:

IdentifierDescription
yyear
Mmonth
wweek
dday
hhour
mminute
ssecond
msmillisecond

We recommend setting this value to match your InfluxDB write frequency. For example, use 1m if InfluxDB writes data every minute.

You can also override this setting in a dashboard panel under its data source options.

Select a query language

InfluxDB data source options differ depending on which query language you select:

  • InfluxQL, a SQL-like language for querying InfluxDB, with statements such as SELECT, FROM, WHERE, and GROUP BY that are familiar to SQL users. InfluxQL is available in InfluxDB 1.0 onwards.
  • Flux, which provides significantly broader functionality than InfluxQL. It supports not only queries but also built-in functions for data shaping, string manipulation, and joining to non-InfluxDB data sources, but also processing time-series data. It’s similar to JavaScript with a functional style.

To help choose the best language for your needs, refer to a comparison of Flux vs InfluxQL and why InfluxData created Flux.

Note: Though not required, we recommend that you append your query language choice to the data source’s Name setting:

  • InfluxDB-InfluxQL
  • InfluxDB-Flux

Configure InfluxQL

Configure these options if you select the InfluxQL (classic InfluxDB) query language:

NameDescription
AccessOnly Server access mode is functional. Direct browser access is deprecated.
Allowed cookiesDefines which cookies are forwarded to the data source. All other cookies are deleted.
DatabaseSets the ID of the bucket to query. Copy this from the Buckets page of the InfluxDB UI.
UserSets the username to sign into InfluxDB.
PasswordDefines the token you use to query the bucket defined in Database. Copy this from the Tokens page of the InfluxDB UI.
HTTP modeSets the HTTP method used to query your data source. The POST verb allows for larger queries that would return an error using the GET verb. Defaults to GET.

Configure Flux

Configure these options if you select the Flux query language:

NameDescription
OrganizationThe Influx organization that will be used for Flux queries. This is also used to for the v.organization query macro.
TokenThe authentication token used for Flux queries. With Influx 2.0, use the influx authentication token to function. For influx 1.8, the token is username:password.
Default bucket(Optional) The Influx bucket that will be used for the v.defaultBucket macro in Flux queries.

Provision the data source

You can define and configure the data source in YAML files as part of Grafana’s provisioning system. For more information about provisioning, and for available configuration options, refer to Provisioning Grafana.

Provisioning examples

InfluxDB 1.x example:

yaml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: InfluxDB_v1
    type: influxdb
    access: proxy
    database: site
    user: grafana
    url: http://localhost:8086
    jsonData:
      httpMode: GET
    secureJsonData:
      password: grafana

InfluxDB 2.x for Flux example:

yaml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: InfluxDB_v2_Flux
    type: influxdb
    access: proxy
    url: http://localhost:8086
    jsonData:
      version: Flux
      organization: organization
      defaultBucket: bucket
      tlsSkipVerify: true
    secureJsonData:
      token: token

InfluxDB 2.x for InfluxQL example:

yaml
apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: InfluxDB_v2_InfluxQL
    type: influxdb
    access: proxy
    url: http://localhost:8086
    # This database should be mapped to a bucket
    database: site
    jsonData:
      httpMode: GET
      httpHeaderName1: 'Authorization'
    secureJsonData:
      httpHeaderValue1: 'Token <token>'

Query the data source

The InfluxDB data source’s query editor has two modes, InfluxQL and Flux, depending on your choice of query language in the data source configuration:

For details, refer to the query editor documentation.

Use template variables

Instead of hard-coding details such as server, application, and sensor names in metric queries, you can use variables. Grafana lists these variables in dropdown select boxes at the top of the dashboard to help you change the data displayed in your dashboard. Grafana refers to such variables as template variables.

For details, see the template variables documentation.