Get started with InfluxDB

Get started with InfluxDB v2.0 by downloading InfluxDB, installing the necessary executables, and running the initial setup process.

This article describes how to get started with InfluxDB OSS. To get started with InfluxDB Cloud, see Get Started with InfluxDB Cloud 2.0 Beta.

macOS Linux Docker

Download and install InfluxDB v2.0 alpha

Download InfluxDB v2.0 alpha for macOS.

InfluxDB v2.0 alpha (macOS)

Unpackage the InfluxDB binaries

Unpackage the downloaded archive.

Note: The following commands are examples. Adjust the file paths to your own needs.

# Unpackage contents to the current working directory
gunzip -c ~/Downloads/influxdb_2.0.0-alpha.9_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xopf -

If you choose, you can place influx and influxd in your $PATH. You can also prefix the executables with ./ to run then in place.

# (Optional) Copy the influx and influxd binary to your $PATH
sudo cp influxdb_2.0.0-alpha.9_darwin_amd64/{influx,influxd} /usr/local/bin/

Both InfluxDB 1.x and 2.x include influx and influxd binaries. If InfluxDB 1.x binaries are already in your $PATH, run the 2.0 binaries in place or rename them before putting them in your $PATH. If you rename the binaries, all references to influx and influxd in this documentation refer to your renamed binaries.

Networking ports

By default, InfluxDB uses TCP port 9999 for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

Start InfluxDB

Start InfluxDB by running the influxd daemon:

influxd

See the influxd documentation for information about available flags and options.

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting influxd.

influxd --reporting-disabled

Download and install InfluxDB v2.0 alpha

Download the InfluxDB v2.0 alpha package appropriate for your chipset.

InfluxDB v2.0 alpha (amd64) InfluxDB v2.0 alpha (arm)

Place the executables in your $PATH

Unpackage the downloaded archive and place the influx and influxd executables in your system $PATH.

Note: The following commands are examples. Adjust the file names, paths, and utilities to your own needs.

# Unpackage contents to the current working directory
tar xvzf path/to/influxdb_2.0.0-alpha.9_linux_amd64.tar.gz

# Copy the influx and influxd binary to your $PATH
sudo cp influxdb_2.0.0-alpha.9_linux_amd64/{influx,influxd} /usr/local/bin/

Networking ports

By default, InfluxDB uses TCP port 9999 for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

Start InfluxDB

Start InfluxDB by running the influxd daemon:

influxd

See the influxd documentation for information about available flags and options.

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting influxd.

influxd --reporting-disabled

Download and run InfluxDB v2.0 alpha

Use docker run to download and run the InfluxDB v2.0 alpha Docker image. Expose port 9999, which InfluxDB uses for client-server communication over the InfluxDB HTTP API.

docker run --name influxdb -p 9999:9999 quay.io/influxdb/influxdb:2.0.0-alpha

InfluxDB “phone home”

By default, InfluxDB sends telemetry data back to InfluxData. The InfluxData telemetry page provides information about what data is collected and how it is used.

To opt-out of sending telemetry data back to InfluxData, include the --reporting-disabled flag when starting the InfluxDB container.

docker run -p 9999:9999 quay.io/influxdb/influxdb:2.0.0-alpha --reporting-disabled

Console into the InfluxDB Container (Optional)

To use the influx command line interface, console into the influxdb Docker container:

docker exec -it influxdb /bin/bash

Set up InfluxDB

The initial setup process for InfluxDB walks through creating a default organization, user, and bucket. The setup process is available in both the InfluxDB user interface (UI) and in the influx command line interface (CLI).

UI Setup CLI Setup

Set up InfluxDB through the UI

With InfluxDB running, visit localhost:9999.
Click Get Started

Set up your initial user

Enter a Username for your initial user.
Enter a Password and Confirm Password for your user.
Enter your initial Organization Name.
Enter your initial Bucket Name.
Click Continue.

InfluxDB is now initialized with a primary user, organization, and bucket. You are ready to write or collect data.

Using the influx CLI after setting up InfluxDB through the UI

To use the influx CLI after setting up InfluxDB through the UI, use one of the following methods to provide your authentication token to the CLI:

Pass your token to the influx CLI using the -t or --token flag.
Set the INFLUX_TOKEN environment variable using your token.
Store your token in ~/.influxdbv2/credentials. The content of the credentials file should be only your token.

See View tokens for information about retrieving authentication tokens.

Set up InfluxDB through the influx CLI

Begin the InfluxDB setup process via the influx CLI by running:

influx setup

Enter a primary username.
Enter a password for your user.
Confirm your password by entering it again.
Enter a name for your primary organization.
Enter a name for your primary bucket.
Enter a retention period (in hours) for your primary bucket. Enter nothing for an infinite retention period.
Confirm the details for your primary user, organization, and bucket.

InfluxDB is now initialized with a primary user, organization, and bucket. You are ready to write or collect data.

get-started install

Bug Reports and Feedback

Thank you for being willing to help test InfluxDB v2.0 alpha! Feedback and bug reports are welcome and encouraged both for InfluxDB and this documentation. Submit feedback using one of the following methods:

Post in the InfluxData Community
In the InfluxDB UI, click Feedback in the left navigation bar.