Navigating InfluxDB CLI

I’ve demonstrated a few InfluxDB commands in my Getting to know InfluxDB and InfluxDB: Retention Policies & Shard Groups posts but though it would be a good idea to write a post completely dedicated to useful CLI commands - so here it is.

SHOW DATABASES

This command is self explanatory. It lists all of your InfluxDB databases:

> SHOW DATABASES
name: databases
name
----
telegraf
_internal

USE

Enters a database so that subsequent commands will be run against it:

> USE telegraf
Using database telegraf

SHOW MEASUREMENTS

Gets a list of measurements that reside in a database:

> SHOW MEASUREMENTS
name: measurements
name
----
cpu
disk
diskio
kernel
mem
processes
snmp
swap
system

CLAUSES

Clauses are extremely useful when you’re looking for specific information. You can read more about them in InfluxDB’s Data Exploration documentation. Some will be used in the subsequent sections of this post.

SHOW FIELD KEYS

Lists the data that is being recorded in each measurement:

> SHOW TAG KEYS FROM snmp,cpu
name: cpu
tagKey
------
cpu
host

name: snmp
tagKey
------
agent_host
host
hostname
ifName

SHOW TAG KEYS

Lists the the tags which are being used in each measurement:

> SHOW TAG KEYS FROM snmp
name: snmp
tagKey
------
agent_host
host
hostname
ifName

SHOW TAG VALUES

View tags values:

> SHOW TAG VALUES FROM snmp WITH KEY = "hostname"
name: snmp
key      value
---      -----
hostname R1
hostname R2

SHOW SERIES

Lists all series in the database (measurement, tag keys and tag values):

> SHOW SERIES FROM snmp,cpu
key
---
cpu,cpu=cpu-total,host=ubuntu
cpu,cpu=cpu0,host=ubuntu
cpu,cpu=cpu1,host=ubuntu
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.242,host=ubuntu,hostname=R1,ifName=Fa0/0
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.242,host=ubuntu,hostname=R1,ifName=Fa0/1
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.242,host=ubuntu,hostname=R1,ifName=Nu0
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.243,host=ubuntu,hostname=R2,ifName=Fa0/0
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.243,host=ubuntu,hostname=R2,ifName=Fa0/1
snmp,agent_host=192.168.0.243,host=ubuntu,hostname=R2,ifName=Nu0

For example, in the above output snmp is a measurement,agent_host, host, hostname and ifName are all key tags and 192.168.0.242, ubuntu, R2 and Fa0/1 are all key values.

SELECT

Displays information that matches your query. Note that both Field Keys and Tag Keys are used in the query below:

> select hostname,ifHCOutOctets,ifHCInOctets from snmp where ifName='Fa0/0' and time > now() - 30s
name: snmp
time                hostname ifHCOutOctets ifHCInOctets
----                -------- ------------- ------------
1497178820000000000 R1       12390993      6913565
1497178820000000000 R2       12015097      6785158
1497178830000000000 R1       12396313      6916122
1497178830000000000 R2       12020416      6787715
1497178840000000000 R1       12402045      6919251

Further Reading

The InfluxDB’s Schema Exploration documentation has numerous commands and outputs which are worth taking a look at. The Influx Query Language documentation is also well worth a read.

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