Running Telegraf as a Windows service

This is archived documentation for InfluxData product versions that are no longer maintained. For newer documentation, see the latest InfluxData documentation.

Running Telegraf as a Windows service

Telegraf natively supports running as a Windows service. Outlined below are the general steps to set it up.

  1. Obtain the Telegraf distribution for Windows.
  2. Create the directory C:\Program Files\Telegraf (if you install in a different location, specify the -config parameter with the desired location)
  3. Place the telegraf.exe and the telegraf.conf files into C:\Program Files\Telegraf.
  4. To install the service into the Windows Service Manager, run the following in PowerShell as an administrator. If necessary, you can wrap any spaces in the file directories in double quotes "<file directory>":

    > C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --service install
    
  5. Edit the configuration file to meet your requirements.

  6. To verify that it works, run:

    > C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --config C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.conf --test
    
  7. To start collecting data, run:

    > net start telegraf
    

Other supported operations

Telegraf can manage its own service through the --service flag:

CommandEffect
telegraf.exe --service installInstall telegraf as a service
telegraf.exe --service uninstallRemove the telegraf service
telegraf.exe --service startStart the telegraf service
telegraf.exe --service stopStop the telegraf service