New user; Influxdb2 data source installed, but nothing in query box

Grafana InfluxDB
1

Hi – I feel like a complete idiot, but I can’t figure out how to actually do anything with Grafana. I have my Influxdb v2 data source configured and (supposedly) working, but when I try to create a query in a panel, there are no dropdowns to select any of the buckets, measurements, or fields. What do I need to do to make my data accessible to formulate a query?

Thanks,
John

2

I think a good starting point would be tell us what you have done, so that we
can keep up with progress so far :slight_smile:

For example:

  • which version of Grafana have you installed?
  • which operating system have you installed it on?
  • how did you install it (package manager, compiled from source, other)?

You say you have InfluxDB v2 installed:

  • is it on the same machine as Grafana or another server?
  • how did you install it (package manager, compiled from source, other)?
  • how are you getting data in to InfluxDB?
  • how have you verified that the data comes back out again?

Finally:

  • what have you done to tell Grafana to use InfluxDB as its data store?
  • what have you done to try to get Grafana to pull data from InfluxDB?
  • have you tried to use the Test Data source in Grafana, just to make sure
    you can create a query?

Any information you can give us so that we can be “on the same page” as you
are with what you’re trying to do would be helpful :slight_smile:

Antony.

3

Thanks, and I realize I should have provided more info.

Grafana is version 8.3.0 beta 2 running on the same machine as Influx v.2.1.1. The Influx database is receiving data via telegraf from some lab equipment and that seems to be working well. I am accessing both Influx and Grafana from a web browser on another machine on the local network, and those connections all seem to work OK.

In Grafana I added Influx as a data source, using Flux queries. In the Grafana Data Sources/InfluxDB form I have what seem to be correct URLs and an API token set. When I do the “save and test” it returns with a green checkmark and tells me there are three buckets.

But when I go to add a dashboard and then add a new panel, the query window at the bottom does not have any drop-downs to select a bucket, measurement, or field. There’s basically nothing there to indicate that the Influx database is available. I’m obviously missing something to link the data source to the query engine, but I don’t know what.

I hope that’s enough info to point in the right directions. Sorry for the lack of detail earlier; I know better than that!

John

4

Welcome! So it seems that you are expecting drop downs, etc. but AFAIK, when you use Flux in Grafana, one must write the query in Flux, such as:

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image1081×427 78.3 KB

Now, I will be the first to admit that Flux is not simple to grasp. However, I found that using InfluxDB Data Explorer is easy to use, and you can use that to “build” the query using checkboxes and such, and then view the Flux query in the format above, and then copy it and paste it into Grafana. Have you played with Data Explorer yet?

5

Hi Grant –
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have been using the Influx explorer but was hoping that Grafana would let me get around some of its limitations, like inability to have different Y scales for different fields.

I think one of the problems may be that I’m in version hell. I’m using Influxdb2 because that’s what’s recommended for new installations, but most of the Google hits about Influx are for version 1. And when I looked at integrating with Grafana, the instructions I could find about adding the data source indicated that for Influxdb2 I had to select Flux as the query language. And then when I got that working, all the docs I could find told me to look for dropdowns to formulate a query.

So am I understanding correctly that using Flux means Grafana can’t provide any dropdowns or other assistance in query formulation, and that I have to go to Influx to figure out the query and then come back to Grafana to enter it? And that if I want to have Grafana help me out by providing dropdowns, I have to change to the older Influx query language? And that to do that, I have to go back to Influx v1.8?

I’m sorry if this sounds negative, but it just seems like there are an awful lot of obstacles for a new user to overcome. Thanks for any insight you can offer.

John

6

Hey John. I think you pretty much nailed it. If you can stomach it, it might be worth uninstalling Influx2 and then installing Influx1.8. When you then re-set up the datasource in Grafana, you’ll choose Influx 1.8 and the InfluxQL language. That will allow you to get started pretty quickly with dropdown menus to build queries, etc.

FWIW, I was in your shoes about 1.5 years ago and had zero experience with any of this. If you can muster through the set up process, you’ll probably be amazed at what you can create. Obviously you were curious enough to get this far, so keep plugging along.

7

Thanks for the encouragement, Grant. I can probably drop back to Influx 1.8, though I have some data in the current setup that I’d want to migrate if I could.

My application is a bit unusual – I’m one of several of the “time-nuts” group that is interested in precise time and frequency measurement that do measurements comparing oscillators (clocks) to determine their stability and offset. This is basically time series data with measurements made often once per second, for potentially weeks at a time. We are looking for a consistent way to manage these data sets, and Influx floated to the top for the actual database. But the kinds of analysis we want to do seem beyond what Influx can handle itself. We’ve heard great things about Grafana, and that’s where I’m stuck. I’ll keep plugging away at it, though. Thanks!