How To Install InfluxDB on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux

InfluxDB is an Open Source time series database designed for monitoring metrics and events while providing a real-time visibility into stacks. InfluxDB is a product developed by InfluxData as part of TICK Stack – which comprises of Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf and Kapacitor. It is a fast Go time series database designed for high availability.

InfluxDB can be easily configured using the configuration file (influxdb.conf) and environment variables. Without much theory, let’s dive into the installation of InfluxDB on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux distribution.

Install InfluxDB on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux

Add InfluxDB APT repository.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y gnupg2 curl wget
wget -qO- https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/debian buster stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

Once the repository is added, install InfluxDB on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y influxdb

InfluxDB default configuration file is located under /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf. Most sections are commented out, you can modify it to your liking and restart influxdb service after.

Start and enable the service to start on boot up.

sudo systemctl enable --now influxdb

Check service status:

~$ systemctl status influxdb
● influxdb.service - InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/influxdb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-10-21 12:59:55 UTC; 1min 33s ago
     Docs: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/
 Main PID: 2088 (influxd)
    Tasks: 10 (limit: 4719)
   Memory: 18.0M
   CGroup: /system.slice/influxdb.service
           └─2088 /usr/bin/influxd -config /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf

Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458599Z lvl=info msg="Starting precreation service" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=shard-pr
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458605Z lvl=info msg="Starting snapshot service" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=snapshot
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458610Z lvl=info msg="Starting continuous query service" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=con
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458617Z lvl=info msg="Starting HTTP service" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=httpd authentic
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458621Z lvl=info msg="opened HTTP access log" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=httpd path=std
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458680Z lvl=info msg="Listening on HTTP" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=httpd addr=[::]:808
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458691Z lvl=info msg="Starting retention policy enforcement service" log_id=0IcbHvDl000
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458876Z lvl=info msg="Listening for signals" log_id=0IcbHvDl000
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.458968Z lvl=info msg="Storing statistics" log_id=0IcbHvDl000 service=monitor db_instanc
Oct 21 12:59:56 deb10 influxd[2088]: ts=2019-10-21T12:59:56.459087Z lvl=info msg="Sending usage statistics to usage.influxdata.com" log_id=0IcbHvDl

Open influxdb service ports on the firewall

For users using ufw firewall, allow service port.

sudo apt -y install ufw
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 8086/tcp

By default, InfluxDB uses the following network ports:

• TCP port 8086 is used for client-server communication over InfluxDB’s HTTP API
• TCP port 8088 is used for the RPC service for backup and restore

Configure InfluxDB http Authentication (Optional)

If you need http authentication, modify influxdb http section to contain the following.

$ sudo vim /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf 
[http]
 auth-enabled = true

Then create a user with an authentication password:

curl -XPOST "http://localhost:8086/query" --data-urlencode "q=CREATE USER username WITH PASSWORD 'strongpassword' WITH ALL PRIVILEGES"

Replace:

– username with your own username
– strongpassword with your own password (note that the password requires single quotes)

Now whenever you need to run any influxdb commands on the terminal, you need to specify username using -username and password using -password options.

influx -username 'username' -password 'password'

For curl, use -u to specify username and password separated by a colon.

curl -G http://localhost:8086/query -u username:password --data-urlencode "q=SHOW DATABASES"

Enjoy using InfluxDB on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux distribution.

Related guides:

Install InfluxDB on Ubuntu 18.04

Install InfluxDB on CentOS 7