Use Chronograf to visualize data

Chronograf is a data visualization and dashboarding tool designed to visualize data in InfluxDB 1.x using the InfluxQL query language. This page walks through how to use Chronograf with InfluxDB Clustered.

Prerequisites

• Download and install Chronograf
• An InfluxDB Clustered cluster with:
  • A database to query
  • A database token with read permissions

Enable InfluxDB 3 support

To connect Chronograf to InfluxDB Clustered, start Chronograf with InfluxDB 3 support enabled using one of the following methods:

chronograf --influxdb-v3-support-enabled

export INFLUXDB_V3_SUPPORT_ENABLED=true
chronograf

Create an InfluxDB connection

1. Open Chronograf and click Configuration (wrench icon) in the navigation menu.

2. Click Add Connection.

   

3. In the Server Type dropdown, select InfluxDB Clustered.

   

4. Enter your InfluxDB Clustered connection credentials:

   • Connection URL: InfluxDB cluster URL

     https://cluster-host.com

   • Connection Name: Name to uniquely identify this connection configuration

   • Management Token: (Optional) A management token for administrative operations

   • Database Token: InfluxDB database token with read permissions on the database you want to query

   • Default Database: (Optional) Default database to use. When set, Chronograf limits queries to this database.

   • Telegraf Database Name: InfluxDB database Chronograf uses to populate parts of the application, including the Host List page (default is telegraf)

   • Unsafe SSL: Enable to skip SSL certificate verification for self-signed certificates

   

5. Click Add Connection.

6. Select the dashboards you would like to create, and then click Next.

7. To configure a Kapacitor connection, provide the necessary credentials, and then click Continue. Otherwise, click Skip.

8. Click Finish.

Configure connection via CLI

You can also configure the connection when starting Chronograf:

Replace the following:

• DATABASE_NAME: Database name
• DATABASE_TOKEN: Database token with read permissions
• MANAGEMENT_TOKEN: Management token

chronograf --influxdb-v3-support-enabled \
  --influxdb-type=influx-v3-clustered \
  --influxdb-url=https://cluster-host.com \
  --influxdb-token=
DATABASE_TOKEN
 \
  --influxdb-mgmt-token=
MANAGEMENT_TOKEN
 \
  --influxdb-default-db=
DATABASE_NAME

For a complete list of configuration options, see InfluxDB 3 connection options.

Query data in the Data Explorer

1. In Chronograf, click Explore in the left navigation bar.
2. Build and submit InfluxQL queries.

-- Fully qualified measurement
SELECT * FROM "db-name"."rp-name"."measurement-name"

-- Fully qualified measurement shorthand (use the default retention policy)
SELECT * FROM "db-name".."measurement-name"

SELECT * FROM mydb.autogen.measurement

Important notes

• Database view is read-only
• No administrative functionality
• Annotations and variables

Database view is read-only

When connected to InfluxDB Clustered, the database view in Chronograf is read-only.

No administrative functionality

Chronograf cannot be used for administrative tasks in InfluxDB Clustered. For example, you cannot do the following:

• Define databases
• Modify retention policies
• Add users
• Kill queries

When connected to an InfluxDB Clustered database, functionality in the InfluxDB Admin section of Chronograf is disabled.

To complete administrative tasks, use the influxctl CLI.

Annotations and variables

Annotations and dashboard variables work with InfluxDB Clustered when a chronograf database exists and is accessible with the same database token.

When setting up variables with dynamic tag values, the backend query limits the scope of the record search with a time condition. By default, this is time > now() - 7d. Tags from records older than this limit are ignored. To change this setting, use the --influxdb-v3-time-condition flag or INFLUXDB_V3_TIME_CONDITION environment variable.