July 2021 Summaries

InfluxDB CLI 2.1.0 has been released with new features, bug fixes, and breaking changes. The release includes a new repository for influx CLI from the influxdata/influx-cli GitHub repository, enabling independent iteration and issue fixing. Breaking changes include the removal of --skipHeader as shorthand for --skipHeader 1 in the write command, stricter input validation for template-related commands, server-side template summarization & validation, and consistent naming conventions for influx stacks --json output keys. New features added are global --http-debug flag to help inspect communication with InfluxDB servers, bucket-schema commands to manage explicit measurement schemas in InfluxDB Cloud, reimplemented backup and restore to support downloading the embedded SQL store from InfluxDB, a --compression flag to backup to support enabling/disabling GZIP compression of downloaded files, a --password flag to user password command to allow bypassing interactive prompt, and bound --skip-verify flag to INFLUX_SKIP_VERIFY environment variable. Bug fixes include fixing interactive password collection & color rendering in PowerShell when using Windows, the organization members list command no longer hangs when an organization has more than 10 members, added the ability to detect & warn when inputs to write contain standalone CR characters, and the dashboards command now accepts --org flag, or falls back to default organization in the config profile. The latest open source release can be found on InfluxData's downloads page.

This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to write CSV data into InfluxDB v2 and InfluxDB Cloud. It covers four methods of writing CSV data, namely using the Telegraf File Plugin, the CLI, the csv.from() Flux function, and any client library. Each method is demonstrated with a sample CSV file that includes timestamp, region, host, usage_user, and measurement columns. The article also provides detailed steps on how to configure each method for writing data into an InfluxDB Cloud Free Tier account. Furthermore, it offers additional resources for learning more about InfluxDB and its related technologies.

Telegraf 1.19.2 has been released as a maintenance update with several improvements. The update includes changes such as updating to Go 1.16.6, linter fixes, and updated dependencies. Additionally, the new version introduces enhancements for various plugins like CGroup Input (cgroup), Kubernetes Inventory Input (kube_inventory), MongoDB Input (mongodb), NSQ Consumer Input (nsq_consumer), Prometheus Input (prometheus), SQL Input (sql), and more. The update also fixes issues related to SSL authentication failure, connection errors, and other plugin-specific problems.

The article discusses how a team built a simple plugin for Telegraf that collects information and user metrics from Chess.com. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to create such a plugin, including gathering data from the Chess.com API, documenting the plugin with README and making a config file, and making the plugin an external plugin. The article also emphasizes the ease of use and flexibility that Telegraf offers, highlighting its potential for various applications and services.

InfluxDB Enterprise 1.9.3 has been released with new security features, including a configurable password hashing option for FIPS 140 compliance. The update also includes improvements to Flux, packaging, and operational aspects of the software. This release does not have a corresponding InfluxDB OSS 1.9 version, as users are encouraged to migrate to InfluxDB 2.x.

Kapacitor 1.6.1 has been released with new features, improvements, and bug fixes. The update includes an embedded Flux engine for scheduling Flux scripts, support for user authentication and authorization in Kapacitor OSS, and additional configuration options for CIDR ranges and alert handlers. Event handlers have also been updated, including the addition of a Zenoss handler and improvements to Kafka, Slack, and BigPanda handlers. The TrickleNode feature has been converted from batch edges to stream edges, and Kapacitor 1.6.x no longer supports 32-bit operating systems.

Maintenance releases for InfluxDB Enterprise and OSS 1.8.7 are now available. These maintenance releases provide fixes for community members and customers who do not wish to upgrade to a more current version at this time. The current versions of InfluxDB OSS and Enterprise are 2.0.7 and 1.9.3, respectively. There is API compatibility of v1 and v2 for the read and write APIs across all editions, including OSS, Enterprise, and Cloud.

InfluxData has introduced a new support system called InfluxData Support that allows users to search for information across various resources such as documentation, tutorials, community forums, blogs, YouTube videos, and GitHub issues. The support system enables users to filter their searches based on different parameters like product type, version, publish date, etc. Additionally, paying customers can submit a case ticket to the InfluxData support team for assistance.

The article discusses an intern's experience at InfluxData, a company that develops software for the Internet of Things (IoT) community. The author highlights their excitement about learning and contributing to this field through open-source projects like InfluxDB. They also share their journey in understanding InfluxDB by participating in the InfluxDays Challenge, which provides an overview of InfluxDB, Telegraf, and Flux. The challenge involves uploading data into InfluxDB using either an annotated CSV or through Telegraf plugins. Once the data is added, users can set up queries with the Data Explorer UI and convert that query into Flux code. Finally, they can create a dashboard to visualize their data. The author concludes by emphasizing how InfluxDB offers simple ways to upload, visualize, and filter data, making it easier for users to plan future projects using real-time data.

InfluxDB Cloud offers a transparent usage-based pricing model that charges users based on their data usage in four separate vectors: writes, query count, storage, and data out. The experimental/usage Flux function can be used to get more detailed information about data usage from an InfluxDB Cloud instance. By multiplying the values of each metric by its individual pricing vector, you can calculate an estimated cost for your data usage. This approach allows users to gain insight into how their costs are divided between different data metrics and provides a more detailed analysis of their expenses.

This article discusses how to visualize HAProxy metrics with InfluxDB. It explains that HAProxy generates over a hundred metrics to provide a nearly real-time view of load balancers and the services they proxy, but these data points need to be turned into time series data for effective visualization. The article then walks through all the steps necessary to get HAProxy metrics displayed in InfluxDB using Telegraf, an open-source server agent with over 200 input plugins written as a standalone Go binary with a minimal memory footprint. It also mentions that InfluxData has created a comprehensive dashboard template for easy installation and use.

The 2021 InfluxData internship program has welcomed a group of talented interns who are working on various projects within the company. These interns come from diverse academic backgrounds, with some pursuing PhDs and others being undergraduate students. They have been assigned to different teams such as Compute, Telegraf, UI, Edge, Developer Advocacy, and Marketing. During their internships, they are learning about time series databases, microservices, Kubernetes, and other technologies. The interns are also gaining valuable experience in working with large codebases, version control, testing, and collaboration within a professional team environment. In their free time, the interns enjoy various activities such as spending time with family and friends, cooking, knitting, building engines, playing video games, hiking, biking, sewing/quilting, exercising, surfing, reading, and eating good food.

Plant Buddy is an IoT project that involves soldering sensors to an Arduino device and teaching it to communicate directly with InfluxDB Cloud for monitoring plants. The project also includes developing an app for users to visualize and create alerts from their uploaded Plant Buddy device data in a custom user experience. This article provides a companion blog using the UI instead of the CLI, highlighting how to use the InfluxData platform with its various features such as generating tokens, uploading line protocol, running queries, downsampling, creating tasks, and setting up notifications.

This article provides tips for optimizing Flux performance in InfluxDB Cloud. It covers general recommendations such as taking advantage of pushdown patterns, schema mutation functions, using variables to avoid querying data multiple times, and dividing processing work across multiple tasks when needed. The author also discusses the Flux Profiler package, which provides performance information based on your query, and offers other tips for optimizing Flux queries. Additionally, the article provides best practices for receiving help with optimizing Flux scripts and further reading resources.

Telegraf 1.19.1 is a maintenance release that includes updates to dependencies such as nat-server, apimachinary, jwt, couchbase, gjson, signalfx, and more. It also fixes various issues in Kubernetes Inventory Input (kube_inventory), Couchbase Input (couchbase), KNX Listener Input (knx_listener), Procstat Input (procstat), RabbitMQ Input (rabbitmq), Dovecat Input (dovecat), StatsD Input (statsd), SNMP Input (snmp), SQL Server Input (sqlserver), and x509 Certificate Input (x509_cert). Additionally, the HTTP Output (http) has been updated to fix a TOML error when parsing insecure_skip_verify. The JSON v2 Parser (json_v2) no longer requires tags to be added to included_keys.

To create a notification rule task in InfluxDB Cloud, follow these steps: 1. Create an endpoint variable in Flux that points to a publicly accessible URL (I punched a hole through my firewall so that my development server is accessible from InfluxDB Cloud). 2. Use the monitoring library to search for any matching statuses that you want to notify users about (specifically if the _level is crit). 3. Call the endpoint for every record that matches that condition, sending along the message created by the check. 4. Store and use the secret in InfluxDB Cloud. 5. Set up the Notification Rule task. 6. Finally, register the notification rule as a task with InfluxDB.