July 2018 Summaries

Measuring Success in Game Development` The author of the article, Katy Farmer, explores the value of metrics in her personal mission to understand its importance in tech. She chooses to instrument an application, "Paper Pirates", a browser-based Node.js game, to gather metrics and improve gameplay performance. Gathering metrics from the game is easy using InfluxDB Node.js client, allowing her to track events such as enemy fire, missile accuracy, and player details. By analyzing these metrics, she determines that reducing the rate of enemy fire from 3,500 times in 10 seconds to one event per second improves gameplay by making it possible for players to survive for longer than a minute. The author also uses aggregates to ease her mental burden and perform analysis on multiple enemies firing at different rates. She believes that understanding the value of metrics enables her to fine-tune gameplay, creating a better gaming experience for players.

In this article, Part 2 of a series on building an InfluxDB IoT edge data collection device, David G. Simmons provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the code used to build the WiFi Sensor, BLE CO2 Sensor, and LoRa Sensors. The author covers the necessary code for each sensor type and then shows how to install InfluxDB and the TICK Stack. This article aims to guide readers in creating their own IoT edge data collection devices.

InfluxData's Time Series Platform is discussed in a Q&A interview with CMO Mark Herring about the Age of Instrumentation, where InfluxData enables organizations to compete and succeed by providing a platform for real-time data analysis. The platform offers benefits such as improved monitoring, reduced latency, and enhanced customer experience through its capabilities in DevOps, IoT, and Real-Time Analytics.

Building an InfluxDB IoT Edge Data Collection Device (Part 1)` is a tutorial by David G. Simmons that provides a step-by-step guide on building an InfluxDB IoT edge data collection device, starting with the necessary hardware components such as WiFi Sensor, BLE CO2 Sensor, LoRa Radiation Sensor, and Contactless Temperature Sensor. The tutorial covers how to build the Edge Collector, which plays a crucial role in collecting and processing data from these sensors.

InfluxData has announced Flux, a new data scripting and query language designed to be useable, readable, composable, testable, contributable, and shareable, which will replace InfluxQL and TICKscript for querying InfluxDB 2.0.` Note: I have condensed the information into one paragraph as requested, highlighting key points of the original text.

Monitoring PostgreSQL databases can be easily achieved using Telegraf, an open-source monitoring tool, in conjunction with InfluxDB, a time-series database. This tutorial guides users through setting up Telegraf and InfluxDB to monitor PostgreSQL performance and throughput by leveraging the statistics collector that automatically gathers metrics about database activity. The process involves editing the Telegraf configuration file to specify the address of the PostgreSQL server, connection parameters, and other settings as needed. Upon restarting Telegraf and Chronograf, users can view the collected metrics in the InfluxDB data explorer or query them using the CLI. This setup allows for easy monitoring of PostgreSQL databases in production, enabling users to track key performance indicators such as database activity, disk usage, and connection times.

The latest release of Chronograf, version 1.6, introduces significant improvements for viewing log data and building context. The Log Viewer provides an intuitive way to explore log data stored in InfluxDB, with features such as a histogram across the top to indicate log levels and customizable colors. Additionally, sharing capabilities have been enhanced, allowing users to export and share dashboard specifications, as well as import them into other instances of Chronograf. Template variable types, including custom meta queries, map variables, and text input variables, enable more dynamic dashboards that can be easily shared and manipulated. These features aim to make the user interface for the TICK Stack more efficient and user-friendly.

Why we're building Flux, a new data scripting and query language, is to provide functionality that doesn't currently exist in the SQL standard for working with time series data. We want a language that will enable developers and data scientists to push more workloads into the data platform layer, without having to write Python scripts to further process their data. The design goals of Flux include usability, readability, composability, testability, contributability, and shareability. It should be functional, allowing users to define functions and import code created by other developers. The language's syntax is intended to look and feel familiar, with a focus on readability and clarity. By creating a new language from the ground up, we can provide a better experience for our users and enable them to work more efficiently with time series data.

Chronograf 1.6.0 has been released, featuring a new log viewer for viewing InfluxDB log data using Telegraf's sysloginput plugin. The dashboard template variables have also been redesigned with the ability to use custom meta queries and key/value mapping. Additionally, sharing features have been improved, allowing users to import and export dashboards as well as set template variables via URL parameters.

Hackaday.io` is a platform where users can share their hardware hacking projects, join contests, and showcase their work. The current challenge is a Human-Computer Interface challenge with a $200,000 prize pool, which requires collecting data to analyze project performance and user interactions. InfluxData offers assistance in setting up `InfluxDB` and the TICK Stack to collect data on these projects, making it easier for participants to improve their designs.

The New Stack | Measuring Success in Game Development` This article, written by Katy Farmer, explores the role of metrics in game development, highlighting their value in monitoring performance, tuning game mechanics, and improving gameplay. The author, who created a browser-based Node.js game called Paper Pirates, notes that games are a rich source of metrics, providing insights into player behavior, game performance, and other key areas. By instrumenting her own application, Farmer demonstrates how metrics can be used to optimize game performance and enhance the overall gaming experience.

Telegraf 1.7.2 has been released, offering several updates and improvements to its plugins. The Docker Input plugin has been updated to report memory usage without memory cache accurately, and now searches across all container names instead of just the first one. The HTTP Output plugin now notifies users when a URL is incorrect or unparseable, and the Printer Processor plugin prints octets in the proper string format. Additionally, improvements have been made to the RegEx Processor and Syslog Input plugins, including fixing errors that occurred when reading EOF. The release also sets new default server tags for Zookeeper Input and uses "localhost" as a default server tag. The updates can be found on the downloads page.

InfluxData's InfluxDB continues to lead in popularity among Time Series Database management systems, with a growth rate exceeding 44% over the past year and more than 160% over two years, according to DB-Engines' latest results. This surpasses its closest competitor by more than three times, solidifying its position as the overwhelming leader in this rapidly growing category. The company's unique features enable customers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics, and IoT applications, empowering developers to collect, analyze, and act on time-based data with ease. With over 420 customers across various industries, InfluxData is pioneering the shift to time series in a modern metrics and events platform, providing real business value quickly and driving digital transformation initiatives.

In the context of modern manufacturing, the "Age of Instrumentation" refers to the widespread use of technology to improve efficiency and productivity. This era is characterized by the integration of programmable logic controllers, remote terminal units, and other devices that enable real-time monitoring and control of manufacturing processes. As a result, organizations can work smarter, not harder, by leveraging instrumentation to optimize their business operations and drive innovation. The "Age of Instrumentation" has significant implications for manufacturing, including the need to instrument both physical and virtual worlds to stay competitive in today's fast-paced industry.

This article, written by Noah Crowley for DZone, provides instructions on how to run the TICK Stack on a Raspberry Pi, a process that involves choosing the right Raspberry Pi model, addressing storage issues, and installing the necessary software. The author discusses using Raspbian as the operating system and explores alternative options such as Docker. The article highlights the benefits of InfluxData's downsampling and retention policy functionality.

InfluxDB 1.6.0 OSS has been released, featuring new InfluxQL Transformation functions including trigonometric and rounding functions, as well as Technical Analysis functions. The release also includes performance improvements such as parallelization of gzip for backups and optimization of the Spread() function. Operational improvements include HTTP write throttle settings, customizable Unix socket group and permissions, and the ability to disable the write log. Additionally, points are now validated when ingested and index usage information is logged during startup.

This article by Noah Crowley provides an overview of how to run the TICK Stack on Linux containers and Docker for OS-level virtualization, covering the components required, installation, managing Docker containers, persistent storage using InfluxDB, and a walkthrough of using Docker Compose.

Telegraf 1.7.1 has been released as a maintenance update, providing bug fixes and improvements to the existing features of the software. The new version includes several enhancements aimed at stabilizing the system and addressing potential issues that users may encounter while using Telegraf. This release is considered a minor update and does not introduce any significant changes or new features, but rather focuses on resolving known problems and ensuring overall stability and performance of the software.

The TICK Stack is a popular open-source monitoring platform that can run on the Raspberry Pi, an inexpensive and low-power single-board computer. The choice of Raspberry Pi model depends on the desired performance and storage requirements, with quad-core 64-bit CPUs being recommended for database applications. Storage performance is crucial, as the SD card can be a bottleneck, so it's essential to use a fast Class 10 SD card or consider using a USB boot mode with a larger capacity SSD. The TICK Stack can be installed using the InfluxData package repository and `apt` on Raspbian, which provides an easy-to-use installation process. Docker is another popular option for running the TICK Stack on a Raspberry Pi, offering isolation and ease of use. Manual options like downloading binaries or building from source are also available, but may require more technical expertise. When using the TICK Stack on a Raspberry Pi, it's essential to consider tradeoffs in terms of software and data processing capabilities due to the device's constraints.

This DZone article by David G. Simmons provides step-by-step instructions on setting up a Telegraf instance to pull syslog data into InfluxDB, enabling "metrics first" log analysis. The author covers installation and configuration for both Mac OS and Linux, allowing readers to set up their own system for efficient log analysis. Additionally, the article discusses how to configure Telegraf and visualize log data using Chronograf.