December 2015 Summaries

InfluxDB has released version 0.9.6, which includes updates to the TSM storage engine, and also provides tools for visual data exploration with Chronograf and monitoring Kubernetes with InfluxDB. The company has undergone a name change from InfluxDB Inc. to InfluxData. Additionally, Telegraf has been updated to version 0.2.4 with support for the MailChimp API. Companies such as Gigaspaces, CognitoIQ, and Siminars have successfully implemented InfluxDB in their production environments, leveraging its scalability, ease of deployment, and query language capabilities. InfluxDB is also featured in various meetups and events, including those in San Francisco, where attendees can showcase their use cases and receive a "thank you" gift - an InfluxDB hoodie and pack of stickers.

Drill Baby Drill! Data Exploration in Chronograf` Chronograf, a visual tool for InfluxDB, allows users to explore their data by filtering down into smaller subsets based on selecting measurements and/or tags. Measurements represent metrics, such as system metrics or services, while tags are key/value pairs used to provide metadata. Users can start with a large dataset and filter it down using the "Filter By" pane in the query editor, reducing the list of available tags and measurements. This process enables users to drill down into specific subsets of data, making it easier to navigate complex datasets. Chronograf's interactive features allow users to explore their data in a visual and intuitive way, facilitating discovery and analysis of time series data.

InfluxDB v0.9.6 has been released with 8 features and 22 bug fixes, including a major revision of the TSM storage engine, which achieves significantly better throughput and compression than previous versions. The new TSM storage engine is now production-ready, but it's still for testing purposes only and requires a fresh database to upgrade from earlier releases. The next release, v0.10.0, will use the TSM storage engine by default and will be released at the end of January, with no breaking API changes expected. The release cadence will slow down to a new revision every 2 months with patch releases in between for bug fixes. Users are encouraged to test the new storage engine and provide feedback to help improve InfluxDB.

InfluxDB is now InfluxData, a platform for time series data that aims to help developers build applications on top of time series data. The company recognizes four key problems in working with time series data: collection, storage, visualization, and processing. To address these issues, InfluxData has introduced the TICK stack, which consists of Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor. These tools are designed to work seamlessly together and provide developers with a comprehensive platform for building intelligent applications in various areas such as DevOps, real-time analytics, sensor data, IoT, automation, finance, business intelligence, and more. The company's goal is to optimize for developer happiness by providing a set of tools that can be quickly used to build applications. InfluxDB development remains a top priority, with improvements coming in the storage engine, clustering, and general stability. The renaming from InfluxDB to InfluxData marks a shift towards becoming a comprehensive platform for time series data, enabling developers to tackle all four areas of collection, storage, visualization, and processing.

Chronograf 0.4 has been released with several improvements, including a new keyboard-friendly Query Builder that allows users to navigate and input queries more easily, as well as increased dropdown sizes for better visibility of available measurements and fields. The server page has also been updated to provide instant view of connection health and server versions, eliminating the need for registration. These updates aim to simplify the setup process and improve overall user experience.

Telegraf version 0.2.4 now supports the MailChimp API, allowing users to gather metrics from email campaigns and forward them to InfluxDB or other configured output sinks. The new plugin requires an API key to be inserted into the configuration file, and can be set to collect only reports for campaigns sent within a certain number of days ago. Users can test the plugin by running `telegraf` with the configuration file, which will output the collected metrics in InfluxDB line protocol format. This is just one of several third-party APIs that Telegraf plans to support in the future, including AWS Metrics, and users are encouraged to contribute plugins for other services.

Kapacitor 0.2.0, the alerting and data processing engine for time series data, has been released with several key features including stream data from InfluxDB or query from it, trigger events/alerts based on complex criteria, perform transformations using InfluxQL, store transformed data back into InfluxDB, process historical data, and more. This release is a bug fix release, marking the start of regular updates to Kapacitor, with plans to cut a release every month. The next big feature to be added is custom user functions, which will enable users to plugin in their own algorithms for anomaly detection or ETL jobs, with ease of use as a priority and community feedback being used to guide development. The next release is scheduled for January.

InfluxData has announced the release of its package repository for Linux, which allows users to easily install and manage InfluxDB and other applications from a single source. The repository is compatible with Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, and CentOS, and will soon be extended to support additional distributions and operating systems. To get started, users can follow the instructions provided for their specific Linux distribution of choice, which include adding the repository and installing the latest stable release of InfluxDB using commands such as `yum install influxdb` or `apt-get install influxdb`. The repository is GPG-signed to ensure package security and integrity, making it a convenient option for users who want to stay up-to-date with the latest versions of InfluxDB. With this new repository, users can easily automate the installation and upgrade process, reducing the risk of errors and manual configuration issues.

Kapacitor is an open-source data processing engine for time series data written in Go, enabling users to trigger alerts based on complex criteria, run ETL jobs, and process data in real-time or batches. It's a standalone program that processes time series data, allowing users to stream or schedule data to Kapacitor via InfluxDB. Kapacitor can process data using the same functions available in InfluxDB query language and plans to add more features such as aggregation functions and anomaly detection. Users can define tasks using a DSL named TICKscript, which defines how data is processed in Kapacitor, allowing for customization and integration with third-party applications. Kapacitor allows users to trigger alerts on high CPU usage, process game developer use cases, and expose scores over the HTTP API. The community is invited to provide early feedback and contribute custom output connectors to improve Kapacitor's functionality.