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Install Telegraf and configure for InfluxDB

Video Lecture

Install Telegraf and configure for InfluxDB Install Telegraf and configure for InfluxDB

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Description

Now to install the Telegraf agent and configure the output plugin to save data into the InfluxDB2.

The installation commands for your OS are at https://portal.influxdata.com/downloads/

Note

In the video, I installed Telegraf v1.20.4 for the Ubuntu & Debian platform. I have updated the commands below for Telegraf v1.27.1.

Download the package (Telegraf v1.27.1).

wget https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb

Install it using the package manager.

sudo dpkg -i telegraf_1.27.1-1_amd64.deb

It is normally started by default. We can check its status.

sudo service telegraf status

If it isn't started, then you can start it.

sudo service telegraf start

CD into the new Telegraf folder

cd /etc/telegraf

Create a backup of the existing Telegraf config.

cp telegraf.conf telegraf.conf.bak

Delete the telegraf.conf

rm telegraf.conf

Create a new telegraf.conf

sudo nano telegraf.conf

Paste this minimal configuration text into it.

[agent]
  interval = "10s"
  round_interval = true
  metric_batch_size = 1000
  metric_buffer_limit = 10000
  collection_jitter = "0s"
  flush_interval = "10s"
  flush_jitter = "0s"
  precision = ""
  hostname = ""
  omit_hostname = false

[[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
  urls = ["http://127.0.0.1:8086"]
  token = "YOUR TELEGRAF READ/WRITE TOKEN"
  organization = "YOUR ORG NAME"
  bucket = "telegraf"

[[inputs.cpu]]
  percpu = true
  totalcpu = true
  collect_cpu_time = false
  report_active = false
[[inputs.disk]]
  ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs", "devfs", "iso9660", "overlay", "aufs", "squashfs"]
[[inputs.diskio]]
[[inputs.mem]]
[[inputs.net]]
[[inputs.processes]]
[[inputs.swap]]
[[inputs.system]]

We can create one.

  1. In the InfluxDB UI, Select Telegraf, and then the CREATE CONFIGURATION button.

  2. Choose the bucket named Telegraf.

  3. Select the source System, and then press the [CONTINUE CONFIGURING] button.

  4. Name your configuration System

  5. Press [SAVE AND TEST]

  6. Copy the token from the first command shown to you.

E.g.,

export INFLUX_TOKEN=abcdefgABCDEFG12345678abcdefhABCDFEFG123456abcdefgABCDEFG12345678abcdefhABCDFEFG123456==

Copy the part after export INFLUX_TOKEN=, so that would be

abcdefgABCDEFG12345678abcdefhABCDFEFG123456abcdefgABCDEFG12345678abcdefhABCDFEFG123456==

Replace the text YOUR TELEGRAF READ/WRITE TOKEN from the configuration above, with your new token. Your token will be different from mine.

Replace YOUR ORG NAME with the organization that you created when you first set up InfluxDB.

Press the [FINISH] button in the InfluxDB UI.

Using SSH, restart Telegraf and check its status.

sudo service telegraf restart
sudo service telegraf status

InfluxDB should now be able to query some extra metrics, and you should be able to also query them in Grafana as demonstrated in the video.

Example flux query

from(bucket: "telegraf")
  |> range(start: v.timeRangeStart, stop:v.timeRangeStop)
  |> filter(fn: (r) =>
    r._measurement == "cpu"
    and r._field == "usage_user"
  )

Grafana 10 and Ubuntu 22.04 Notes

InfluxDB 2.7.1

The UI layout, just like Grafana, changes all the time with every new version. All the same options are there, but just maybe in a different place under a different section heading.

Create the read only token

To create the Grafana_Read_only token, in InfluxDB, select API TOKENS → GENERATE API TOKEN → Custom API Token.

Grafana Read Only Token

Press the [Generate] button, and save the new API token for later.

System Dashboard Missing

In InfluxDB 2.7.1, the Telegraf Configuration wizard has changed dramatically compared to InfluxDB v2.1.1. It no longer creates the System dashboard in the InfluxDB UI as shown in the video.

Instead, you can install the template from a URL.

  1. In InfluxDB, press the Dashboards icon, and press the [CREATE DASHBOARD] button, and select Add a Template.

  2. Use this URL below in the prompt.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/influxdata/community-templates/master/linux_system/linux_system.yml

  1. Press [LOOKUP TEMPLATE]

  2. Press the Dashboards icon gain, and the dashboard is named Linux System