Metrics with Influx and Grafana

Steve Anthony, Lehigh University

Abstract: 

In this lab you will install and configure a basic InfluxDB, Telegraf, and Grafana installation, enabling you to collect metrics from the host machine and track internal performance of InfluxDB.

You will also learn how to add InfluxDB as a data source in Grafana, and create basic graphs and dashboards. Finally, you'll take your system dashboard and use the Grafana templating engine to abstract the graphs so that you can use them with multiple systems.

Steve Anthony, Lehigh University

Steve Anthony is the Systems Administrator for Lehigh University's Research Computing group, which provides High Performance Computing, storage, and related services to the University's faculty and students.

BibTeX
@conference {221948,
author = {Steve Anthony},
title = {Metrics with Influx and Grafana},
year = {2018},
address = {Nashville, TN},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = oct
}
Who should attend: 

Anyone interested in learning to use InfluxDB, Telegraf, or Grafana.

Take back to work: 

Ability to install and configure Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana to collect metrics from systems and produce visualizations to track performance of said systems.

Topics include: 

Metrics, monitoring

Prerequisites: 
  • A computer able to run a virtual machine with 512MB of RAM and 1 core. You will need to install VirtualBox version 4.3+ if you don't already have it.
  • Familiarity with Linux and working from a command line environment.
  • Familiarity with VirtualBox helpful, but not required.
  • Some understanding of the basics of a SQL query language may be helpful, eg. basic SELECT statements.