February 2016 Summaries

InfluxDB has made significant announcements, including the launch of virtual training for $19 and upcoming training in San Francisco. The company is also hiring a developer/product evangelist and releasing Telegraf 10.4 with support for Windows, Riak, and Apache Mesos. InfluxDB is being used by various companies such as Citilogics for predictive analytics, OOO for manufacturing data management, and Sputnik for custom monitoring solutions. The company has also started a program to feature user success stories on its website in exchange for a hoodie and social media shoutout. Upcoming events include webinars on topics such as performance tuning, schema design, and cluster administration.

The TICK stack, which includes InfluxDB, is a platform for building IoT projects that collect and store sensor data in the cloud. The project described integrates an Arduino Uno microcontroller with a temperature sensor to collect temperature readings every 10 seconds, which are then sent to the cloud via serial port communication. A Python application on the PC reads the values from the serial port and writes them to InfluxDB, storing them as a time-stamped measurement with tags for station identification. This setup allows for scalability and querying of data across multiple stations, setting the stage for further development and deployment of IoT projects using the TICK stack.

The TICK Stack, which includes TICK (Time Series Database), is being used on the Google Cloud Platform for a real-time IoT project. The InfluxDB Python client library is utilized to interact with the database. Key points include importing the Python library, establishing a connection to the InfluxDB host, querying existing values, and writing records to the database using JSON data. The code initializes an InfluxDBClient object with the hostname and port, then uses it to query for temperature data and write new record data to the database. The result of the `write_points` method is a boolean value indicating success or failure.

InfluxDB, an open-source time-series database, is managed on Google Cloud Platform using a TICK Stack, which consists of Trafodion, InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor. The InfluxDB API exposes three endpoints: /ping, /query, and /write, allowing for basic operations like querying, writing, and administering databases. To interact with the API, one can use HTTP POST calls to insert records or query existing data using the Query API. Google Cloud Shell provides a convenient environment for working with InfluxDB, offering pre-installed tools and SDKs, making it easier to manage data and perform operations without needing to manually configure everything. The TICK Stack offers a scalable solution for managing time-series data, allowing developers to build IoT projects efficiently.

InfluxData is a platform for collecting, storing, visualizing, and managing time-series data, which has applications beyond IoT and sensors, such as tracking temperature every 5 minutes at various locations. Building an InfluxDB solution from scratch can be complex, but platforms like InfluxData offer pre-built solutions with features like storing time-series data, collection/integration mechanisms, standard dashboards, alerts, and more. The TICK stack includes modules for building IoT projects with Arduino/Python, which will be explored in Part 2 of this tutorial series. To get started, create a project on Google Cloud Platform, provision a virtual machine, install InfluxDB, start the server, and validate its installation by creating a database, inserting data, querying records, and accessing the admin interface from outside. Firewalls must also be configured to allow access to the admin web app and API from outside the Compute Engine network.

InfluxDB has been featured in various blogs, videos, articles, documentation, and how-to guides recently. The company announced training sessions in San Francisco and virtual training options, as well as a new migration tool for Graphite/Whisper to InfluxDB. Telegraf 0.10.3 was also released with support for MQTT, NATS, and arbitrary data formats. Additionally, InfluxDB 0.10.1 was released with critical bug fixes and updates to the migration tool. Gluru, a machine-learning platform, adopted the InfluxData stack for its infrastructure monitoring and analytics needs, while AlertBasket used InfluxDB to gather app metrics. Dominion, a hard apple cider producer, uses InfluxDB to store telemetry data from their equipment. The company is now offering hoodies as a thank-you gift to users who feature their products on influxdata.com. Upcoming training sessions and meetups are also listed.

Telegraf 0.10.3 introduces support for more message brokers, including MQTT and NATS, and arbitrary data formats, allowing users to parse and serialize metrics in various formats such as JSON and Graphite.` The new release adds input plugins like dovecot and raindrops, and output plugins like file and couchdb, enabling users to consume and produce data in different formats. `The updated Telegraf now includes the option to flush its internal buffer when it fills up, ensuring that metrics are not overwritten under high loads. `Future work plans include supporting more data formats and developing powerful parsing and serializing templates.

Graphite/Whisper to InfluxDB migration utility is now available in beta, addressing scalability issues and providing better write performance, data compression, and community momentum compared to Graphite. The utility can migrate data using the InfluxDB HTTP API or natively with TSMWriter, which may require a server reboot. The community is invited to test and provide feedback on the utility, while expert help and training are also available for those looking to make the switch from Graphite to InfluxDB.

InfluxDB has had several announcements in the last week, including the general availability of versions 0.10 for InfluxDB and its related tools Chronograf and Kapacitor. Additionally, there have been tutorials on how to set up Docker monitoring with Google cAdvisor, InfluxDB, and Grafana, as well as videos on continuous queries, retention policies, and creating custom UDFs in Kapacitor. Several companies, including BillFront and Atatus, have adopted InfluxDB for their performance monitoring needs, citing its ability to store large amounts of data and provide fast development times. Another company, OMD-Labs by ConSol Labs, has implemented a new concept for installing and maintaining monitoring systems using InfluxDB instead of traditional Nagios-based solutions. InfluxDB is also being featured as part of several upcoming events, including training sessions in San Francisco and meetups in San Francisco and Minneapolis.

Announcing Chronograf 0.10 GA` Chronograf 0.10 is now available, marking a significant release with improved features and tighter release cycles. The new version introduces a smarter query builder that can parse raw InfluxDB queries directly, making it easier to work with the data. Template variables have been added, allowing users to apply values across multiple queries, and time ranges are now supported through the use of `tmplTime()` functions. These features aim to improve productivity and reduce duplication in dashboard configurations. Looking ahead, Chronograf plans to introduce more tools for custom analytics, new visualization types, and UI/Performance improvements. The software is now available for download, along with resources such as documentation and a Getting Started guide to help users get started.

The team at InfluxData has announced the stable version of InfluxDB 0.10, which uses the TSM storage engine, significantly improving performance on writes, reducing IOPS load by over an order of magnitude, and achieving a write throughput of >350,000 points per second. The new release also features improved compression, reducing each point down to around 2.2 bytes, which is 98% better than previous versions. Additionally, the team has put significant effort into testing and improving stability, with no scenario able to corrupt the database during compactions, write, or queries. Upgrading from previous versions is possible, but may require consultation for clusters or older shards. The new release also introduces clustering improvements, including a Meta Node and Data Node configuration, which can be used in large cluster setups or with two nodes acting as both Meta and Data nodes.