February 2021 Summaries

The latest version of InfluxDB OSS (version 2.0.4) has been released on Docker Hub, causing some users to be unexpectedly upgraded from InfluxDB 1.8 to the new version due to using the :latest tag in their deployments. This update was not intended for production use and can cause compatibility issues with existing data files. Users who have been affected are advised to either upgrade their data to work with the new version or roll back to the previous version, with documentation provided on how to do so. The :latest tag is meant to be used only in development and testing environments, and Docker Hub will continue to update the tag to point to new versions of InfluxDB OSS 2.x as they are released.

The future of InfluxDB OSS is more open and permissive, with a complementary closed-source offering that complements the open source software. The new core of InfluxDB, IOx, is a columnar database written in Rust using Apache Arrow and with object storage for persistence, and it will form the basis of the backend for an upcoming point release of InfluxDB 2.x OSS. The commercial offering will be separate software that is complementary to the open source software, allowing users to run the open source bits as-is on-premise or in the cloud, while enjoying additional features and support through the commercial product. This approach aims to balance the needs of both the community and commercial customers, ensuring that the open source code remains freely available and permissive, while providing a clear path for commercial development and revenue generation.

The DigitalOcean Billing Monitoring Template is a pre-built InfluxDB template that allows users to easily monitor their DigitalOcean account balance and resource consumption in one place. The template provides a customizable dashboard with real-time data on current balance, consumption to date, and balance to date. By using this template, users can gain insights into their spending and make informed decisions about their DigitalOcean resources. The template is easy to install and use, requiring only a single command to import it into InfluxDB Cloud. It also allows users to control their account balance by monitoring usage in real-time, making it an essential tool for developers and businesses using DigitalOcean.

The InfluxDB C client library is a tool for capturing operating system performance statistics and saving them to InfluxDB, an open-source time series database. The library provides functions for connecting to InfluxDB, handling tags, measurements, and data types such as integers, doubles, and strings. It also includes features like sub-measurements for handling multiple resources of the same type. The library is written in C and can be used to create a data collector program or integrated into an existing application. It has been tested on various operating systems and hardware configurations and provides debugging output options. The code and example usage are available on GitHub, along with documentation and instructions for compiling and using the library.

InfluxData has partnered with Ockam to bring trust to time series data streams and data warehouses in a zero-trust environment, abstracting away complexities required to build distributed applications. Ockam provides end-to-end encrypted communication, machine identity and access management, secure channels, and granular control over data access, making it easy for application developers to focus on the trust rules and policies of their IoT and time series data-dependent applications. The partnership enables InfluxDB developers to easily integrate Ockam with their applications, providing a solution for securing data streams at scale, controlling network boundaries, and managing device identities and credentials.

Morea Pollet shares her reasons for joining InfluxData as a marketer. She was drawn to the challenge of making complex data management products accessible and easy to understand. The open-source nature of InfluxData's product allows marketing to focus on education and community support, which she finds fulfilling. Additionally, Pollet enjoys the diverse day-to-day tasks in her role, working with knowledgeable people, and learning continually in a collaborative environment that embraces failure and encourages personal growth.

InfluxData has announced that registration for the InfluxDays EMEA 2021 Virtual Experience is now open, taking place on May 18-19, 2021. The event focuses on time series data and will feature live sessions, on-demand content, and interactive experiences such as Happy Hour and trivia. Last year's virtual InfluxDays EMEA was a success, with attendees from all over the world participating in the conference and engaging with each other through social media platforms like Slack. This year, the event promises to be even better, with improved technical capabilities, new training offerings, and enhanced networking opportunities.

A new maintenance release for Telegraf is now available, which includes improvements such as an update to Go 1.15.8, updated libraries, agent fixes, input plugin updates, and support for IPv4/IPv6 connection schemes in SNMP Input. The binaries can be found on the InfluxDB downloads page, and users are encouraged to report any issues or questions through the InfluxDB Community Slack, GitHub Repo, or Community Site.

The OSS InfluxDB 2.0 Monitoring Template provides a free and scalable way to monitor InfluxDB instances in production, enabling proactive response to issues such as disk or network failures, memory saturation, and write or query loads. The template can be easily installed by signing up for a free InfluxDB Cloud account and comes with a built-in metrics dashboard that offers an instant starting point for customizing monitoring configurations. It tracks key resources, storage usage, and queries issued, providing essential metrics for investigating performance degradations in open-source instances. The template is compatible with other InfluxDB Templates, such as the Operational Monitoring Template, and can be used to monitor multiple InfluxDB versions, including both 1.X and 2.0 editions.

InfluxDB Cloud is now available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, offering a simple, low-rate pricing model based on usage, with no minimum spend requirements. This allows users to consolidate their InfluxDB Cloud and Enterprise expenditures onto a single Azure bill, streamlining billing, reporting, purchasing, and support processes. With this integration, users can access InfluxDB Cloud via Azure Marketplace for easy setup and management of time series databases, and take advantage of features such as dynamic scaling, usage-based pricing, and seamless integration with other Microsoft technologies like SQL Server, GitHub, and Microsoft Teams.

A new maintenance release for InfluxDB Enterprise is now available, which builds upon the InfluxDB OSS 1.8.4 release, addressing various issues and improvements specific to Enterprise users, including the ability to update licenses without restarting nodes, bug fixes related to influxd-ctl show shards, and enhancements to custom HTTP headers.

Kapacitor 1.5.8 has been removed from the Downloads page due to a detected defect that may cause large batch tasks to not fully write points back to InfluxDB, primarily affecting downsampling tasks where information is written to another retention policy. The issue affects users who are currently using version 1.5.8 and strongly recommended to downgrade immediately to Kapacitor 1.5.7 to avoid potential data loss. A resolution for this defect is being worked on, and a release announcement with the fix will be sent out once addressed. Users can contact support or reach out through various channels for assistance.

InfluxDB 2.0 provides a feature called templates that allow users to easily apply preconfigured resources such as Telegraf configurations, buckets, dashboards, tasks, and alerts to their InfluxDB instance. Community templates are available in the repository, making it easy for new users to get started with InfluxDB. Users can also create their own templates by combining dashboards, tasks, alerts, or Telegraf configurations and share them with the community, who may write a blog post about them if selected. To create a template, users need to set up an InfluxDB CLI configuration, add labels to resources, export the template, and submit it as a pull request.

A new maintenance release for Chronograf is now available, which includes enhancements such as additional metadata query support, Bitbucket OAuth2 support, and fixes for various issues including ARM v5 build compatibility, log viewer improvements, Data Explorer functionality, and importing dashboards.

InfluxDB is a time series database that offers ease of use and vast documentation, making it a cohesive fit for various stacks. Sensu Go is an observability event pipeline that collects, processes, and routes different event types, including discovery, availability, telemetry, and alerts. An InfluxDB Template can be used to monitor Sensu Go by utilizing the /metrics API endpoint that advertises Prometheus metrics. This template facilitates working with time series data and provides a more direct line to how Sensu is running internally, allowing for metric extraction and analysis. With some basic knowledge of deploying Sensu Go and working with Telegraf plugins, it's easy to use this template, making it a useful tool for DevOps operators of Sensu and other systems.

A new maintenance release, InfluxDB OSS 1.8.4, has been made available by InfluxDB, addressing various issues including exporting Line Protocol data in a more efficient format, improved metrics for tracking values written into InfluxDB, enhanced Flux logging with corrected durations and memory allocation information, and other defect fixes to resolve issues such as truncated ArrayFilterCursor and multi-measurement query problems.

InfluxData has made significant progress in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching users worldwide through its new Authorized Channel Partner program. The program features a robust ecosystem of distributor and reseller partners that help support InfluxDB users globally, particularly in the Asia Pacific region with a focus on IoT use cases. New enterprise customers and community users were welcomed by these partners, including Japanese giant SoftBank, Chinese telecom leader China Mobile, and Korean telecom company SK Broadband. Regional distributors like Digital China, Hyundai BS&C, and IIIOT Infotech play a crucial role in supporting the resellers and providing local language assistance to make InfluxDB purchases seamless. The program badges, such as Platinum Partner, Gold Partner, and Authorized Distributor, designate ongoing commitment to the partnership with InfluxData, while new partnerships with Digital China and Hyundai BS&C were established to accelerate deals. As InfluxDB continues to be adopted worldwide, the channel program will focus on building relationships with new regional partners and collaborating with existing partner communities.

HAProxy is an open-source TCP/HTTP load balancer software and proxy server that distributes workloads across multiple servers to improve performance and reliability in server environments. InfluxDB Templates provide a quick way to define monitoring configurations for any technology, including HAProxy, by importing a shared, open-source text file into InfluxDB with a single command. The HAProxy Monitoring Template collects metrics about HAProxy using the Telegraf Plugin and stores them in InfluxDB, presenting them in a preconfigured dashboard that allows users to monitor service performance and receive alerts when issues arise, reducing blind scenarios where developers or customers struggle to diagnose problems. By using this template, developers can gain visibility into their application's performance and manipulate data for improved customer business.