Restoring a Chronograf database

Chronograf uses Bolt to store Chronograf-specific key-value data. Generally speaking, you should never have to manually administer your internal Chronograf database. However, rolling back to a previous version of Chronograf does require restoring the data and data-structure specific to that version.

Chronograf’s internal database, chronograf-v1.db, is stored at your specified --bolt-path which, by default, is the current working directory where the chronograf binary is executed. In the upgrade process, an unmodified backup of your Chronograf data is stored inside the backup directory before any necessary migrations are run. This is done as a convenience in case issues arise with the data migrations or the upgrade process in general.

The backup directory is a sibling of your chronograf-v1.db file. Each backup file is appended with the corresponding Chronograf version. For example, if you moved from Chronograf 1.4.3.3 to 1.4.4.2, there will be a file called backup/chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.3.

Chronograf backup directory structure

chronograf-working-dir/
├── chronograf-v1.db
├── backup/
|   ├── chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.1
|   ├── chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.2
|   └── chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.3
└── ...

Rolling back to a previous version

If there is an issue during the upgrade process or you simply want/need to roll back to an earlier version of Chronograf, you must restore the data file associated with that specific version, then downgrade and restart Chronograf.

The process is as follows:

1. Locate your desired backup file

Inside your backup directory, locate the database file with a the appended Chronograf version that corresponds to the version to which you are rolling back. For example, if rolling back to 1.4.3.3, find backup/chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.3.

2. Stop your Chronograf server

Stop the Chronograf server by killing the chronograf process.

3. Replace your current database with the backup

Remove the current database file and replace it with the desired backup file:

# Remove the current database
rm chronograf-v1.db

# Replace it with the desired backup file
cp backup/chronograf-v1.db.1.4.3.3 chronograf-v1.db

4. Install the desired Chronograf version

Install the desired Chronograf version. Chronograf releases can be viewed and downloaded either from the InfluxData downloads page or from the Chronograf releases page on Github.

5. Start the Chronograf server

Restart the Chronograf server. Chronograf will use the chronograf-v1.db in the current working directory.

Rerunning update migrations

This process can also be used to rerun Chronograf update migrations. Go through steps 1-5, but on step 3 select the backup you want to use as a base for the migrations. When Chronograf starts again, it will automatically run the data migrations required for the installed version.