This is archived documentation for InfluxData product versions that are no longer maintained. For newer documentation, see the latest InfluxData documentation.
aggregation
An InfluxQL function that returns an aggregated value across a set of points. See InfluxQL Functions for a complete list of the available and upcoming aggregations.
Related entries: function, selector, transformation
continuous query (CQ)
An InfluxQL query that runs automatically and periodically within a database.
Continuous queries require a function in the SELECT clause and must include a GROUP BY time() clause.
See Continuous Queries.
Related entries: function
database
A logical container for users, retention policies, continuous queries, and time series data.
Related entries: continuous query, retention policy, user
duration
The attribute of the retention policy that determines how long InfluxDB stores data. Data older than the duration are automatically dropped from the database. See Database Management for how to set duration.
Related entries: retention policy
field
The key-value pair in InfluxDB’s data structure that records metadata and the actual data value. Fields are required in InfluxDB’s data structure and they are not indexed - queries on field values scan all points that match the specified time range and, as a result, are not performant relative to tags.
Query tip: Compare fields to tags; tags are indexed.
Related entries: field key, field set, field value, tag
field key
The key part of the key-value pair that makes up a field. Field keys are strings and they store metadata.
Related entries: field, field set, field value, tag key
field set
The collection of field keys and field values on a point.
Related entries: field, field key, field value, point
field value
The value part of the key-value pair that makes up a field. Field values are the actual data; they can be strings, floats, integers, or booleans. A field value is always associated with a timestamp.
Field values are not indexed - queries on field values scan all points that match the specified time range and, as a result, are not performant.
Query tip: Compare field values to tag values; tag values are indexed.
Related entries: field, field key, field set, tag value, timestamp
function
InfluxQL aggregations, selectors, and transformations. See InfluxQL Functions for a complete list of InfluxQL functions.
Related entries: aggregation, selector, transformation
identifier
Tokens which refer to database names, retention policy names, user names, measurement names, tag keys, and field keys. See Query Language Specification.
Related entries: database, field key, measurement, retention policy, tag key, user
line protocol
The text based format for writing points to InfluxDB. See Line Protocol.
measurement
The part of InfluxDB’s structure that describes the data stored in the associated fields. Measurements are strings.
Related entries: field, series
metastore
Contains internal information about the status of the system. That includes user information, database and shard metadata, and which retention policies are enabled.
Related entries: database, retention policy, user
node
An independent influxd process.
Related entries: server
point
The part of InfluxDB’s data structure that consists of a single collection of fields in a series. Each point is uniquely identified by its series and timestamp.
You cannot store more than one point with the same timestamp in the same series. Instead, when you write a new point to the same series with the same timestamp as an existing point in that series, the field set becomes the union of the old field set and the new field set, where any ties go to the new field set. For an example, see Frequently Encountered Issues.
Related entries: field set, series, timestamp
query
An operation that retrieves data from InfluxDB. See Data Exploration, Schema Exploration, Database Management.
replication factor
The attribute of the retention policy that determines how many copies of the data are stored in the cluster.
InfluxDB replicates data across N data nodes, where N is the replication factor.
Replication factors do not serve a purpose with single node instances.
Related entries: duration, node, retention policy
retention policy (RP)
The part of InfluxDB’s data structure that describes for how long InfluxDB keeps data (duration), how many copies of this data is stored in the cluster (replication factor), and the time range covered by shard groups (shard group duration). RPs are unique per database and along with the measurement and tag set define a series.
When you create a database, InfluxDB automatically creates a retention policy called default with an infinite duration, a replication factor set to one, and a shard group duration set to seven days.
See Database Management for retention policy management.
Replication factors do not serve a purpose with single node instances.
Related entries: duration, measurement, replication factor, series, tag set
schema
How the data are organized in InfluxDB. The fundamentals of the InfluxDB schema are databases, retention policies, series, measurements, tag keys, tag values, and field keys. See Schema Design for more information.
Related entries: database, field key, measurement, retention policy, series, tag key, tag value
selector
An InfluxQL function that returns a single point from the range of specified points. See InfluxQL Functions for a complete list of the available and upcoming selectors.
Related entries: aggregation, function, transformation
series
The collection of data in InfluxDB’s data structure that share a measurement, tag set, and retention policy.
Note: The field set is not part of the series identification!
Related entries: field set, measurement, retention policy, tag set
series cardinality
The count of all combinations of measurements and tags within a given data set.
For example, take measurement mem_available with tags host and total_mem.
If there are 35 different hosts and 15 different total_mem values then series cardinality for that measurement is 35 * 15 = 525.
To calculate series cardinality for a database add the series cardinalities for the individual measurements together.
Related entries: tag set, measurement, tag key
server
A machine, virtual or physical, that is running InfluxDB. There should only be one InfluxDB process per server.
Related entries: node
tag
The key-value pair in InfluxDB’s data structure that records metadata. Tags are an optional part of InfluxDB’s data structure but they are useful for storing commonly-queried metadata; tags are indexed so queries on tags are performant. Query tip: Compare tags to fields; fields are not indexed.
Related entries: field, tag key, tag set, tag value
tag key
The key part of the key-value pair that makes up a tag. Tag keys are strings and they store metadata. Tag keys are indexed so queries on tag keys are performant.
Query tip: Compare tag keys to field keys; field keys are not indexed.
Related entries: field key, tag, tag set, tag value
tag set
The collection of tag keys and tag values on a point.
Related entries: point, series, tag, tag key, tag value
tag value
The value part of the key-value pair that makes up a tag. Tag values are strings and they store metadata. Tag values are indexed so queries on tag values are performant.
Related entries: tag, tag key, tag set
timestamp
The date and time associated with a point. All time in InfluxDB is UTC.
For how to specify time when writing data, see Write Syntax. For how to specify time when querying data, see Data Exploration.
Related entries: point
transformation
An InfluxQL function that returns a value or a set of values calculated from specified points, but does not return an aggregated value across those points. See InfluxQL Functions for a complete list of the available and upcoming aggregations.
Related entries: aggregation, function, selector
tsm (Time Structured Merge tree)
The purpose-built data storage format for InfluxDB. TSM allows for greater compaction and higher write and read throughput than existing B+ or LSM tree implementations. See Storage Engine for more.
user
There are two kinds of users in InfluxDB:
- Admin users have
READandWRITEaccess to all databases and full access to administrative queries and user management commands. - Non-admin users have
READ,WRITE, orALL(bothREADandWRITE) access per database.
When authentication is enabled, InfluxDB only executes HTTP requests that are sent with a valid username and password. See Authentication and Authorization.
wal (Write Ahead Log)
The temporary cache for recently written points. To reduce the frequency with which the permanent storage files are accessed, InfluxDB caches new points in the WAL until their total size or age triggers a flush to more permanent storage. This allows for efficient batching of the writes into the TSM.
Points in the WAL can be queried, and they persist through a system reboot. On process start, all points in the WAL must be flushed before the system accepts new writes.
Related entries: tsm