Database Management

InfluxQL offers a full suite of administrative commands.

• Data management
     ◦      Create a database with CREATE DATABASE
     ◦      Delete a database with DROP DATABASE
     ◦      Delete series with DROP SERIES
     ◦      Delete measurements with DROP MEASUREMENT
     ◦      Delete a shard with DROP SHARD

• Retention policy management
     ◦      Create retention policies with CREATE RETENTION POLICY
     ◦      Modify retention policies with ALTER RETENTION POLICY
     ◦      Delete retention policies with DROP RETENTION POLICY

If you’re looking for SHOW queries (for example, SHOW DATABASES or SHOW RETENTION POLICIES), see Schema Exploration.

The examples in the sections below use InfluxDB’s Command Line Interface (CLI). You can also execute the commands using the HTTP API; simply send a GET request to the /query endpoint and include the command in the URL parameter q. See the Querying Data guide for more on using the HTTP API.

Note: When authentication is enabled, only admin users can execute most of the commands listed on this page. See the documentation on authentication and authorization for more information.

Data Management

Create a database with CREATE DATABASE

The CREATE DATABASE query takes the following form:

CREATE DATABASE [IF NOT EXISTS] <database_name> [WITH [DURATION <duration>] [REPLICATION <n>] [NAME <retention-policy-name>]]

Note: The IF NOT EXISTS clause does nothing, is deprecated, and will be removed in InfluxDB version 0.12. The CREATE DATABASE query will return successfully with no error when a new database is created or if the database already exists.

Create the database NOAA_water_database:

> CREATE DATABASE NOAA_water_database
>

Create the database NOAA_water_database only if it doesn’t exist:

> CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS NOAA_water_database
>

Create the database NOAA_water_database with a new retention policy called liquid:

> CREATE DATABASE NOAA_water_database WITH DURATION 3d REPLICATION 3 NAME liquid
>

When specifying a retention policy you can include one or more of the attributes DURATION, REPLICATION, and NAME. For more on retention policies, see Retention Policy Management

A successful CREATE DATABASE query returns an empty result.

Delete a database with DROP DATABASE

The DROP DATABASE query deletes all of the data, measurements, series, continuous queries, and retention policies from the specified database. The query takes the following form:

DROP DATABASE [IF EXISTS] <database_name>

Note: The IF EXISTS clause does nothing, is deprecated, and will be removed in InfluxDB version 0.12. The DROP DATABASE query will return successfully with no error when a new database is created or if the database already exists.

Drop the database NOAA_water_database:

> DROP DATABASE NOAA_water_database
>

A successful DROP DATABASE query returns an empty result.

Delete series with DROP SERIES

The DROP SERIES query deletes all points from series in a database. The query takes the following form, where you must specify either the FROM clause or the WHERE clause:

DROP SERIES FROM <measurement_name[,measurement_name]> WHERE <tag_key>='<tag_value>'

Delete all series from a single measurement:

> DROP SERIES FROM h2o_feet

Delete series that have a specific tag set from a single measurement:

> DROP SERIES FROM h2o_feet WHERE location = 'santa_monica'

Delete all points in the series that have a specific tag set from all measurements in the database:

> DROP SERIES WHERE location = 'santa_monica'

A successful DROP SERIES query returns an empty result.

Delete measurements with DROP MEASUREMENT

The DROP MEASUREMENT query deletes all data and series from the specified measurement and, unlike DROP SERIES, it also deletes the measurement from the index. The query takes the following form:

DROP MEASUREMENT <measurement_name>

Delete the measurement h2o_feet:

> DROP MEASUREMENT h2o_feet

Note: DROP MEASUREMENT drops all data and series in the measurement. It does not drop the associated continuous queries.

A successful DROP MEASUREMENT query returns an empty result.

Delete a shard with DROP SHARD

The DROP SHARD query deletes a shard. It also drops the shard from the metastore. The query takes the following form:

DROP SHARD <shard_id_number>

Delete the shard with the id 1:

> DROP SHARD 1
>

A successful DROP SHARD query returns an empty result. InfluxDB does not return an error if you attempt to drop a shard that does not exist.

Retention Policy Management

The following sections cover how to create, alter, and delete retention policies. Note that when you create a database, InfluxDB automatically creates a retention policy named default which has infinite retention. You may disable that auto-creation in the configuration file.

Create retention policies with CREATE RETENTION POLICY

The CREATE RETENTION POLICY query takes the following form, where DEFAULT is optional:

CREATE RETENTION POLICY <retention_policy_name> ON <database_name> DURATION <duration> REPLICATION <n> [DEFAULT]

• DURATION determines how long InfluxDB keeps the data - the options for specifying the duration of the retention policy are listed below. Note that the minimum retention period is one hour.
  m minutes
  h hours
  d days
  w weeks
  INF infinite

  Currently, the DURATION attribute supports only single units. For example, you cannot express the duration 7230m as 120h 30m. See GitHub Issue #3634 for more information.

• REPLICATION determines how many independent copies of each point are stored in the cluster, where n is the number of data nodes.

• DEFAULT sets the new retention policy as the default retention policy for the database.

Create a retention policy called one_day_only for the database NOAA_water_database with a one day duration and a replication factor of one:

> CREATE RETENTION POLICY one_day_only ON NOAA_water_database DURATION 1d REPLICATION 1
>

Create the same retention policy as the one in the example above, but set it as the default retention policy for the database.

> CREATE RETENTION POLICY one_day_only ON NOAA_water_database DURATION 1d REPLICATION 1 DEFAULT
>

A successful CREATE RETENTION POLICY query returns an empty response.

Note: You can also specify a new retention policy in the CREATE DATABASE query. See Create a database with CREATE DATABASE.

Modify retention policies with ALTER RETENTION POLICY

The ALTER RETENTION POLICY query takes the following form, where you must declare at least one of the retention policy attributes DURATION, REPLICATION, or DEFAULT:

ALTER RETENTION POLICY <retention_policy_name> ON <database_name> DURATION <duration> REPLICATION <n> [DEFAULT]

First, create the retention policy what_is_time with a DURATION of two days:

> CREATE RETENTION POLICY what_is_time ON NOAA_water_database DURATION 2d REPLICATION 1
>

Modify what_is_time to have a three week DURATION and make it the DEFAULT retention policy for NOAA_water_database.

> ALTER RETENTION POLICY what_is_time ON NOAA_water_database DURATION 3w DEFAULT
>

In the last example, what_is_time retains its original replication factor of 1.

A successful ALTER RETENTION POLICY query returns an empty result.

Delete retention policies with DROP RETENTION POLICY

Delete all measurements and data in a specific retention policy with:

DROP RETENTION POLICY <retention_policy_name> ON <database_name>

Delete the retention policy what_is_time in the NOAA_water_database database:

> DROP RETENTION POLICY what_is_time ON NOAA_water_database
>

A successful DROP RETENTION POLICY query returns an empty result.