InfluxDB Installation

Ubuntu Installation | OracleLinux Installation

Ubuntu 14.04 Installation

Add Repo

~$ curl -sL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -
~$ source /etc/lsb-release
~$ echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/${DISTRIB_ID,,} ${DISTRIB_CODENAME} stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

Install InfluxDB

~$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install influxdb -y
~$ sudo service influxdb start

Verify Dev Web Portal

By default, InfluxDB creates a simple web portal that developers can use to verify or generate query strings. You should be able to access it by going to:
http://domain.com:8083/

Database config

Login and create a DB

~$ influx
Connected to http://localhost:8086 version 0.13.0
InfluxDB shell version: 0.13.0
> CREATE DATABASE influxdb
> SHOW DATABASES
name: databases
---------------
name
_internal
influxdb

Testing DB

~$ influx
> USE influxdb
> INSERT cpu,host=serverA value=0.64
> SELECT * from cpu
name: cpu
---------
time			host	value
1467318896821675352	serverA	0.64

Setting up an external write into the database. Open a new shell on the same host.

~$ curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=influxdb' --data-binary 'cpu_load_short,host=server01,region=us-west value=0.60'
HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Request-Id: d333c2a3-3f03-11e6-800b-000000000000
X-Influxdb-Version: 0.13.0
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2016 20:47:14 GMT

Write the same string multiple times to the influxdb, but remember to change the value

~$ curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=influxdb' --data-binary 'cpu_load_short,host=server01,region=us-west value=0.30'
~$ curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=influxdb' --data-binary 'cpu_load_short,host=server01,region=us-west value=0.40'

Verify the data is there

~$ influx
> USE influxdb
Using database influxdb
> SELECT * from cpu_load_short
name: cpu_load_short
--------------------
time			host		region	value
1434055562000000000	server01	us-west	0.64

Adding an Administrator Account

~$ influx
> CREATE USER root WITH PASSWORD 'TuTewlyQsjhMregggQbF' WITH ALL PRIVILEGES

Creating User account with access to Database

~$ influx
> CREATE USER influx WITH PASSWORD 'influxdb'
> GRANT ALL ON influxdb TO influx

Verify Users and Rights

~$ influx
> SHOW USERS
user	admin
root	true
influx	false
> SHOW GRANTS FOR influx
database	privilege
influxdb	ALL PRIVILEGES

Add Authentication for HTTP requests

Note: I started out with this enabled, then I had to set it back to false in order for collectd to report metrics. As with anything, lock down traffic to your trusted hosts. Change auth-enabled = false to auth-enabled = true

~$ sudo vi /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf
[http]
  enabled = true
  bind-address = ":8086"
  auth-enabled = true #
  log-enabled = true
  write-tracing = false
  pprof-enabled = false
  https-enabled = false
  https-certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb.pem"
  max-row-limit = 10000

Restart the Service

~$ sudo service influxdb restart

Verify local authentication

Make sure you can still authenticate with your accounts. Non-Admin accounts cannot SHOW DATABASES or SHOW USERS

 ~$ influx
Connected to http://localhost:8086 version 0.9.4.1
InfluxDB shell 0.9.4.1
> auth root TuTewlyQsjhMregggQbF
>

OR

~$ influx -username root -password TuTewlyQsjhMregggQbF

Inserting data with Authentication

This is an example:

~$ curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=influxdb' -u influx:influxdb --data-binary 'cpu_load_short,host=server01,region=us-west value=0.10'

Grafana Test Graph

Verify Data

Before you begin with grafana, you should verify that the data has been inserted into the DB. You can do this quickly by navigating to the Dev Page for InfluxDB: http://domain.com:8083/
Once there, make sure you input the correct

• hostname
• user
• password
• database
• database user
• database user password

Use a simple query that will show your data, like this:

SELECT * FROM cpu_load_short

You can also try to look at 100 values of each type with something like this:

SELECT * FROM /.*/ limit 100

Also, only pull the values from current to (1) hour ago

SELECT * FROM memory_value WHERE time > now() - 1h

Grafana Dashboard

Watch this video: https://youtu.be/sKNZMtoSHN4?list=PLDGkOdUX1Ujo3wHw9-z5Vo12YLqXRjzg2
Remember to click the "Eye" icon once you've selected the Measurement. Without this being selected, the query will never be passed to the InfluxDB and you'll get error messages like:

influxdb error: response missing required parameter q

You will need to add a data source. Here's an example of an InfluxDB datasource addition:

 For Example:
Name: InfluxDB
Type: InfluxDB
Url: http://localhost:8086
Access: proxy
Http Auth - Basic Auth: [checked]   With Credentials: [checked]
User: influx
Password: influxdb
Database: influxdb
User: influx    Password: influxdb

Influx DB data capture test

SSH Established connections

Determine numeric value

obtain a single numeric value for established connections on specific port(s).

~$ netstat -an | grep -w '22\|2222' | grep ESTABLISHED | wc -l
1

POST to influxdb

~$ curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=collectd' -u influx:influxdb --data-binary 'established_connections,host=localhost,type=ssh value=1'
HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Request-Id: d4c9a7bc-40ec-11e6-962c-000000000000
X-Influxdb-Version: 0.13.0
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2016 07:07:40 GMT

Create script

Capture data point every 5 seconds and post to DB

~$ sudo vi /bin/established_connections.sh 

#!/bin/bash
#script using netstat to look for established connections on either port 22 or 2222 (ssh and custom ssh alt) and report the numeric value to an influx db every (5) seconds.

while true; do
        ec_ssh=$(netstat -an | grep -w '22\|2222' | grep 'ESTABLISHED' | wc -l)
        db_string='established_connections,host=localhost,type=ssh value='"$ec_ssh"
        curl -i -XPOST 'http://localhost:8086/write?db=collectd' -u influx:influxdb --data-binary "$db_string"
        sleep 5
done

~$ sudo chmod +x /bin/established_connections.sh

Create init.d script

Auto Start service at boot, plus start, stop, restart, and status options

~$ sudo vi /etc/init.d/established.connections 


#!/bin/sh
 ## BEGIN INIT INFO
 # Provides: established.connections
 # Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog
 # Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog
 # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6
 # Short-Description: Start established.connections at boot time
 # Description: Load established.connectios at startup to report active connections to InfluxDB
 ### END INIT INFO

#startup function
start_established_connections() {
        printf "Starting Established Connections Monitoring ...\n"
        /bin/established_connections.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &
        printf "... started.\n"
}

#stopping function
stop_established_connections () {
        printf "Stopping Established Connections Monitoring ...\n"
        killall -9 established_connections.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &
        printf "... stopped.\n"
}

#restarting function that stops and starts established connections
restart_established_connections () {
        printf "Restarting Established Connections Monitoring ..."
        stop_established_connections
        start_established_connections
}

#status determination
status_established_connections () {
        if [ $(ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep 'established_connections.sh' | wc -l) = 1 ]; then
                printf "Established Conections Monitoring is running.\n"
        else
                printf "Established Connections Monitoring is not running.\n"
        fi
}

case "$1" in
        start)
                start_established_connections
                ;;
        stop)
                stop_established_connections
                ;;
        restart)
                restart_established_connections
                ;;
        status)
                status_established_connections
                ;;
        *)
                printf "Usage: /etc/init.d/established.connections {start|stop|restart|status}\n"
                exit 1
                ;;

esac
exit 0

~$ chmod 755 /etc/init.d/iptables.rules
~$ update-rc.d iptables.rules defaults