September 2021 Summaries

Oktoberfest celebrations may look different this year, but that doesn't mean the InfluxDB community can't celebrate at home. Luke Bond, an engineer at InfluxData, uses Telegraf and InfluxDB to monitor fermentation temperatures as he makes beer at home. He needed to be able to monitor the ambient temperature in his home to ensure the temperature was ideal and consistent for his beer-making projects. Using InfluxDB, Luke can easily create useful dashboards and alerts to automate everything.

InfluxData, a leading time series data provider, has announced three new additions to its executive leadership team. Arwa Kaddoura has been appointed as Chief Revenue Officer, Carolyn Moore as Chief People Officer, and Brian Mullen as Chief Marketing Officer. All three executives will report to InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan. The company aims to expand its global sales activities, enhance talent strategy for its growing workforce, and strengthen its marketing efforts with these appointments.

The yield() function in Flux is used to determine which table inputs should be returned in a script and assigns a name to the output of a query. This function allows multiple aggregations to be returned simultaneously by invoking multiple yield() functions within a single Flux script. By using variables, users can store the base query and reference it for multiple aggregations without querying the entire dataset multiple times. The yield() function is important because it enables the return of multiple table streams from a single Flux script at different points in time.

InfluxDB CLI 2.1.1 has been released with new features and bug fixes. The project is now upgraded to Go version 1.17, shell completion for top-level influx commands has been fixed, a global --http-debug flag has been added to the help text, and an issue related to incorrectly setting empty strings for IDs in permission resources has been resolved. Additionally, some detection and erroring out when we see incorrect positional args have been added, and the value of the --host flag is now respected when writing CLI configs during setup. The latest open source release can be found on InfluxData's downloads page.

Jennifer Gibson shares her positive experience with InfluxData, highlighting the company's people-centric approach during the interview process. She mentions how the team allowed her to build a role that better suited her skills and experience. Gibson also appreciates the growth and autonomy offered by InfluxData, as well as the genuine interest shown by the CEO in getting to know her beyond her professional qualifications.

Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is a fundamental transformation in manufacturing systems and processes through IIoT technologies. It involves automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using cloud-native technology and data analytics. The main goal of Industry 4.0 is to optimize operations, generate data-driven insights, create new revenue streams, and accelerate innovation. Key challenges include designing a data architecture that meets the demanding performance, scalability, and availability requirements of industrial environments. Adopting IIoT can help manufacturers overcome these challenges by offering reduced cost, easy installation, improved data accuracy, and remote monitoring.

InfluxData is excited to participate in KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America taking place in Los Angeles. The company will have a booth at the event where attendees can learn more about their offerings and participate in live demos. They are also hosting a session at the co-located DevX Days event on October 11, discussing how an improved developer experience has made their devs happier. InfluxData is giving away free tickets to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America and encourages everyone to visit their booth or virtual booth for more information.

The article discusses the use of Flux VS Code Extension for IoT application development by InfluxData. It assumes that users are working with the InfluxDB Cloud Free tier, which is an easy way to get started and maintain InfluxDB. The preferred tool for most developers is a combination of the CLI (Command Line Interface) and the Visual Studio Code Flux extension. The article also highlights new features in the latest release of the Flux VS Code Extension, including the ability to create and delete buckets and tasks. It encourages users to take advantage of the Visual Studio Code Flux extension for their IoT application development needs.

Telegraf 1.20.0 has been released with new features and improvements. The update includes support for Go 1.17.0, RTU/ASCII over TCP in the Modbus Input Plugin, multiple paths in the HTTP Listener v2 Input Plugin, JSON, MessagePack, and Protocol-buffers format support to the XPath parser, RFC 3164 support to Syslog Input Plugin for BSD-style syslog messages, and new inputs such as Elasticsearch Query Input Plugin, Internet Speed Monitor Input Plugin, mdstat Input Plugin, and ROCm System Management Interface (SMI) Input Plugin. Additionally, the release introduces new outputs like OpenTelemetry Output Plugin and Azure Data Explorer Output Plugin. The latest Telegraf binaries can be found on InfluxData's downloads page.

Charles Mahler shares his reasons for joining InfluxData as a technical marketing writer. He highlights three main factors that influenced his decision: the role itself, which allows him to utilize all areas of his skill set; the team, characterized by honesty and camaraderie; and the company, which offers a unique startup environment centered around open-source software.

This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to set up InfluxDB with a PHP application. It covers the fundamentals of connecting to the database, writing data, reading data, and what you can do with it once it is all hooked up. The author uses the official PHP library for InfluxDB 2.x and 1.8+ in this guide. They also provide examples on how to insert data using different methods such as line protocol strings, data point builder, and array structure. Finally, they demonstrate how to query data back out from InfluxDB using table structure or stream method.

Aggregations are crucial for processing large amounts of time series data. However, improper use can lead to inefficient queries. To optimize aggregation performance in InfluxDB using the Flux language, users should avoid aggregating too early or too late and take advantage of pushdown patterns that allow the storage layer to perform more work. By doing as much filtering as possible before applying aggregations, waiting on transformations until after aggregations, and utilizing pushdown patterns, users can significantly improve query performance.

InfluxDays North America 2021 Virtual Experience is set for October 26-27, 2021. The event will focus on time series data applications and use cases. Speakers from InfluxData's team and community members will share their knowledge and experience with the tools. Registration is open and free. Two training sessions are also available leading up to the conference: Flux Training (October 11-12, 2021) and Telegraf Training (October 25).

Lyndal Cairns shares her reasons for joining InfluxData, highlighting three values that have driven her career path: community, integrity, and purpose. She appreciates the genuine care and collaboration within the team at InfluxData, as well as their commitment to understanding and improving their products. Additionally, she finds support and space for growth in creating high-quality content at the company.

This tutorial demonstrates how to visualize time series data from InfluxDB with Highcharts, a charting library. The author provides step-by-step instructions on setting up the environment, querying and fetching data, and constructing the graph using various properties of the Highcharts library. They also encourage readers to explore Highcharts documentation and demos for more visualization possibilities.

Jason Myers shares his journey of joining InfluxData, a company he initially wasn't planning to join. He was impressed by the transparency and honesty conveyed during interviews with Chris Churilo and other team members. The company's genuine care for its employees and commitment to growth opportunities convinced him to sign on. Myers highlights that InfluxData provides an environment where people can thrive, not just survive.