TL;DR InfluxDB Tech Tips - Integers in Line Protocol and Enterprise Clusters in Chronograf

By Regan Kuchan / Product, Developer
Apr 06, 2017

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In this weekly post we recap the most interesting InfluxDB and TICK stack related issues, workarounds, how-tos and Q&A from GitHub, IRC and the InfluxData Community that you might have missed in the last week or so.

Integers in Line Protocol

Q: I’m trying to write integers to InfluxDB but they always seem to turn into floats. Is there a way to write integers to my instance with Line Protocol?

> INSERT floatation_device,color=pink sold=14

> SHOW FIELD KEYS

name: floatation_device
fieldKey  fieldType
--------  ---------
sold      float

A: Yes! InfluxDB assumes all numerical field values are floats unless you include a trailing i on the number:

> INSERT floatation_device,color=pink sold=14i

> SHOW FIELD KEYS

name: floatation_device
fieldKey fieldType
-------- ---------
sold     integer

Enterprise Clusters in Chronograf

Q:  I’m an InfluxDB Enterprise customer and I’m interested in monitoring my cluster with Telegraf and Chronograf. I already have Telegraf set up and running on my cluster’s three data nodes. Are there any special steps for connecting a cluster to Chronograf?

I also noticed that Chronograf’s ADMIN page has a user management section. Is that only for the OSS InfluxDB product? Does Chronograf also support the more advanced users, permissions, and roles available in the InfluxDB Enterprise product?

A: Chronograf does work with InfluxDB Enterprise clusters! The setup is almost the same as if you were using the OSS InfluxDB product; it just includes one additional step.

First, assuming this is the first time you’ve accessed Chronograf, fill out the welcome page with the relevant information. Use any one of your data node’s IPs as the IP in the Connection String input:

Next, this is the additional step for the InfluxDB Enterprise cluster, visit the CONFIGURATION tab in Chronograf and edit your existing source. In the Meta Service Connection URL input, enter the IP of any one of your meta nodes. Be sure to include http:// (or https:// if you’re running TLS) and port 8091:

Finally, save your changes and you’re good to go! Chronograf recognizes that it’s working with an InfluxDB Enterprise cluster and automatically adjusts the ADMIN page to include the relevant user management features:

What's next:

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