InfluxData Blog - Peter Barnett

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.9: More Operational Control and a New Performance Preview

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

We’ve spent the last few months listening to how teams are running InfluxDB 3 in the wild. The feedback was clear: as you scale, you need less “guesswork” and more control. Today’s release of InfluxDB 3.9 is our answer to that.

As more teams move InfluxDB 3 into production, our focus has shifted toward the operational experience: how you manage the database at scale, how you ensure it remains secure, and how you provide a seamless experience for users. This release is packed with a host of quality-of-life improvements and a beta of the key features we have planned for upcoming releases.

Whether you’re using the open source InfluxDB 3 Core for recent data and local workloads or scaling with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise for the full clustering and security suite, these 3.9 updates are designed to make your stack more predictable.

Operational maturity and system transparency

In 3.9, we’ve focused on making the database more predictable and transparent for operators. We have organized these refinements into three key areas:

Advanced CLI & Automation: We’ve expanded the CLI to better support complex, headless environments. This includes new flags for non-interactive automation and data validation, alongside support for unique host overrides to target specific node types in a cluster. We’ve also improved how Parquet query outputs are piped, making it easier to integrate InfluxDB into automated data pipelines.
System Reliability & Resource Management: We’ve refined how the database handles resources and large-scale schemas. To better support complex data, we’ve increased the default string field limit to 1MB. We’ve also hardened the database lifecycle; administrative controls are now more rigorous, and we’ve ensured that background resources, such as triggers, are cleanly decommissioned whenever a database is removed.
Visibility & Under-the-Hood Infrastructure: We’ve upgraded our core infrastructure to improve both security and operational clarity. This includes upgrading DataFusion and the bundled Python for more efficient query execution and plugin security. Additionally, the system now provides better visibility into access control and product identity, updating metrics, headers, and metadata access to clearly distinguish between Core and Enterprise builds across your stack.

Collectively, these refinements remove the subtle points of friction that can accumulate as a system scales in production. By hardening resource management and streamlining automation, we’re ensuring that InfluxDB 3 remains a predictable, “set-it-and-forget-it” core for your infrastructure.

Now in beta: A new performance preview

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on performance updates to InfluxDB 3. These improvements support large-scale time series workloads without sacrificing predictability or operational simplicity. This work lays the foundation for what’s coming in 3.10 and 3.11, specifically focusing on smoothing behavior under load and expanding the range of schemas InfluxDB 3 can handle.

Because performance in time series is highly dependent on specific workloads and cardinality, we are introducing these updates as a beta in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise. The beta is intended for testing in staging or development environments only. It allows you to explore and provide feedback on:

Optimized single-series queries: Targeting reduced latency when fetching single-series data over long time windows.
Resource smoothing: Testing reduced CPU and memory spikes during heavy compaction or ingestion bursts.
Wide-and-sparse table support: For handling schemas ranging from extreme column counts to ultra-sparse data tables (or any combination).
Automatic distinct value caches: Early-stage, auto-creation of caches designed to reduce friction and eliminate metadata query latency.

These updates are available as an optional, flag-gated preview in InfluxDB 3.9 Enterprise. They are not recommended for production workloads. We encourage Enterprise users to test these capabilities against their specific use cases to help us refine the features for GA. InfluxDB 3 Core will also support many of these new features in the coming releases.

For instructions on how to enable these preview flags and to view the full technical requirements, visit our official Enterprise documentation.

Download InfluxDB 3.9: Available now via our downloads page or latest Docker images.
Join the beta: If you are an InfluxDB 3 Enterprise Trial user, reach out to me in our Discord or Community Slack to learn how to enable these beta features.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.8: Linux Service Management, Kubernetes Helm Chart, and Smarter Ask AI

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.8 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, alongside the 1.6 release of the InfluxDB 3 Explorer UI. This release is focused on operational maturity and making InfluxDB easier to deploy, manage, and run reliably in production.

InfluxDB 3 Core remains free and open source under MIT and Apache 2 licenses, optimized for recent data. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise builds on that foundation with long-range querying, clustering, security, and full operational tooling.

Linux service management for Core and Enterprise

InfluxDB 3.8 introduces Linux service management across our deb and rpm packages, so InfluxDB installs and runs like a standard Linux service without manual setup.

Packages now register systemd units on modern distributions and provide SysV support for older environments. Services install cleanly, enable automatically, and respond to the same lifecycle commands operators already use. Configurability is centralized in a TOML file and a launcher that translates those settings into the server’s current configuration model.

Upgrading from Core to Enterprise is straightforward. Both use the same data and plugin locations, so you simply install Enterprise over Core and restart. There’s no data migration or juggling directories.

Helm chart for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise (beta)

For teams running InfluxDB on Kubernetes, 3.8 introduces an official Helm chart for Enterprise, currently in beta. This makes deployments more predictable, repeatable, and aligned with production best practices.

The Helm chart packages our recommended deployment patterns into a single chart so you don’t have to maintain custom manifests or piece together a configuration from scratch. It supports common production needs like object storage configuration, cluster settings, and environment-specific overrides, and uses standard Helm mechanisms for installs, upgrades, and rollouts.

During the beta, we’re focused on refining defaults and ensuring upgrades behave the way operators expect.

Custom instructions for Ask AI in Explorer

Version 1.6 of our Explorer UI expands Ask AI with Custom Instructions, giving users more control over how the AI behaves and what context it uses when generating responses. You can teach Ask AI naming conventions, call out which measurements or tags matter most, or specify how you want results formatted. This makes Ask AI more consistent across sessions, users, and shared environments.

This is especially useful when multiple teams work against different datasets, but want Ask AI to stay grounded in their specific workflows.

Other improvements

Explorer’s line protocol experience is smoother and easier to work with, with clearer validation and more helpful feedback.
The Processing Engine includes refinements to write buffering and query handling for sparse datasets, improving stability under uneven workloads.
New internal metrics give operators better visibility into ingestion, Processing Engine execution, and storage activity.

Get started

InfluxDB 3.8 is available now. Download the latest release or pull the newest Docker image for Core or Enterprise.

Explorer 1.6 is also available with Ask AI Custom Instructions and improvements across both writing and querying. Check out the docs (Core, Enterprise) for more details, and join the conversation in Discord or the Community Slack. Your feedback continues to shape where we go next.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.7: One-Click Monitoring, Faster Configuration, and Better Operational Clarity

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.7 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, landing alongside version 1.5 of the InfluxDB 3 Explorer UI. This release focuses on giving developers faster visibility into what their system is doing with one-click monitoring, a streamlined installation pathway, and broader updates that simplify day-to-day operations.

InfluxDB 3 Core is free and open source, optimized for recent data, and licensed under MIT and Apache 2. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise extends Core with long-term data retention, clustering, fine-grained security, and advanced management capabilities.

One-click system monitoring in Explorer 1.5

Version 1.5 of our Explorer UI introduces a new way to understand how your environment is performing. A single “Enable Monitoring” action configures your system appropriately and begins collecting host-level metrics for the infrastructure running InfluxDB.

A built-in dashboard tracks these metrics alongside database activity over time, making it easy to see how the system responds under load. The most relevant signals also surface directly in the System Overview, so you can spot issues before they turn into problems.

This provides an immediate, built-in way to understand the operational health of your running infrastructure. It’s particularly helpful for local development, on-prem deployments, and setups where full monitoring infrastructure isn’t available.

Faster installation and configuration

This update also introduces a new Docker Compose installation that starts InfluxDB 3 and Explorer together in one step. The Compose file installs both services, generates the Explorer configuration automatically using a new operator token, and brings everything online immediately. Once the stack is running, you can write data, run queries, and use Explorer without manual setup or additional staging.

This cuts down the time between installation and first interaction with the system and gives teams a consistent starting point for deployment and testing.

Other improvements

Finally, this release includes updates focused on operational clarity and system behavior:

More control over Processing Engine triggers
Improved data management when shutting down nodes
Enhanced response headers for cleaner integration with secondary services

Together, these changes improve system reliability and make it easier to understand what’s happening during maintenance and troubleshooting.

Get started

InfluxDB 3.7 is available now. To get started, download the latest version or pull the newest Docker image for Core or Enterprise.

Explorer 1.5 is also available with one-click monitoring. Try it in your environment and let us know how it works for you.

Check out the docs (Core, Enterprise), and join the conversation in Discord or the Community Slack. Your feedback continues to shape where we go next.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.6: Ask AI, Simple Quick Start, and Smarter Automation

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 07:30:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.6 is now available for both Core and Enterprise. This release introduces the 1.4 update to InfluxDB 3 Explorer, featuring the beta launch of Ask AI, along with new capabilities for simple startup and expanded functionality in the Processing Engine.

Ask AI now in beta for InfluxDB 3 Explorer

Version 1.4 of our Explorer UI includes Ask AI, a new beta feature that brings natural language to time series analysis. Plug in your API key, and Ask AI lets you query your data, documentation, and system operations conversationally, with no SQL required.

You can say, “show CPU usage by region over the last hour” or “give me a chart of average temperature this week,” and InfluxDB will return the results you need in the format you want. Ask AI can also perform operational tasks like creating databases, generating tokens, or adjusting settings, all with a single prompt.

Ask AI lowers the barrier for new users and keeps advanced users fast and productive. It’s available now in beta through Explorer 1.4 for both Core and Enterprise.

Shareable dashboards

Explorer 1.4 also adds support for importing and exporting dashboards. You can now share dashboards between environments or move them between Explorer and Grafana using compatible JSON files. This makes it easier to standardize visualizations, collaborate across teams, and back up your dashboards with version control.

Quick start

InfluxDB 3.6 can now start by simply running influxdb3. For development or local environments, you no longer need to configure instance or storage information before running the database. IDs and data directories are created automatically, lowering initialization complexity, so you can get started in just a few seconds after download completes.

Quick start is for developers who want to test or prototype InfluxDB without setup overhead, or want to run in a simple local environment. Environment variables and CLI flags still override defaults, so production deployments remain fully explicit and configurable. This makes it easy to switch from local testing to production without changing workflows.

A major Processing Engine upgrade

The Processing Engine in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise enables you to execute custom Python code within the database to automate workflows, transform data, and create API endpoints. InfluxDB 3.6 expands the Processing Engine into a full extensibility layer. It now supports multifile Python plugins, direct uploads and updates, built-in observability, and tighter security controls.

Plugins can now include multiple files organized as proper Python modules, making code easier to maintain and reuse, with support for both single-file and directory-based plugins. Plugins can be uploaded or updated directly from your local environment without manual file transfers or server restarts, so users can iterate faster on complex data processing logic. All active plugins will continue to work without changes, with full backward compatibility.

To make management more transparent, InfluxDB now exposes all plugin files through a new plugin files table and a corresponding CLI command. Administrators can monitor which plugins are loaded, their size, and when they were last modified.

For production environments, new controls manage extensibility and governance together. Custom plugin repositories let organizations define trusted sources for plugins, while package management can now be fully disabled in locked-down environments, ensuring compliance without losing flexibility.

Get started

InfluxDB 3.6 is available now. To get started, download the latest version or pull the latest Docker image for Core or Enterprise.

Ask AI (Beta) is now available in Explorer 1.4. Try it in your environment and share feedback as we expand its capabilities.

Check out the docs (Core, Enterprise) for details, and let us know what you think in Discord or the Community Slack. Your feedback helps shape where we go next.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.5: Explorer Dashboards, Cache Querying, and Expanded Control

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 07:30:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.5 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, along with updates to the new Explorer UI that make it easier to save, organize, and query your data. This release highlights the biggest updates since our 3.4 release, including Explorer Dashboards in beta, new cache querying capabilities, and stronger operational tools for managing clusters.

InfluxDB 3 Core is free and open source, optimized for recent data, and licensed under MIT and Apache 2. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise builds on that foundation with support for longer-term historical queries, high availability, enhanced security, and multi-node deployments.

Explorer Dashboards (beta)

InfluxDB 3 Explorer is designed for visualizing, querying, and managing your data stored in InfluxDB 3 Core and Enterprise. Explorer now supports Dashboards, giving you the ability to save and revisit your preferred queries in one place. Whether you’re tracking ongoing metrics or running repeat analyses, Dashboards make Explorer a more powerful workspace for time series monitoring and analysis.

Cache querying in Explorer

InfluxDB 3’s built-in Last Value and Distinct Value Caches eliminate costly full-table scans by providing immediate access to a time series’s most recent or unique values. With the release of 3.5, you can perform ad hoc queries against these caches from Explorer to support exploratory analysis and everyday workflows.

Last Values Cache: Pull the most recent values for each series with millisecond latency, ideal for “current state” dashboards or alerting.
Distinct Values Cache: Instantly query unique tag and field values, perfect for powering filters, dropdowns, or doing fast metadata lookups.

Smarter operational visibility and performance improvements

We’ve also introduced new features to simplify cluster management and improve oversight, and rolled out general improvements for production deployments:

CLI parameters in system tables: Startup parameters for each node are now queryable, giving operators direct visibility into configurations without chasing logs or flags.
Manual node management (Enterprise): Admins can stop cluster nodes in a controlled way, freeing up licensed cores and enabling smoother maintenance workflows.
Tightened security: Stronger token permissions prevent unintended access to the internal system database, and configurable TLS verification enables safe object store connections.

Get started

InfluxDB 3.5 is available today. To get started, download InfluxDB 3.5 or pull the latest Docker image for Core and Enterprise.

Check out the docs for details, and let us know what you think in Discord or our Community Slack. Your feedback helps shape where we go next.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.4: Simpler Cache Management, Provisioned Tokens, and More

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Today, we’re releasing InfluxDB 3.4 for Core and Enterprise, as well as our 1.2 update for the Explorer UI. This release focuses on developer efficiency, operational automation, and targeted security enhancements, giving teams faster setup, smoother workflows, and stronger guardrails for production use.

Simpler cache creation and management

We introduced the Last Value and Distinct Value caches to accelerate metadata queries and deliver near real-time access to current values. With 3.4, these caches can now be managed directly in the Explorer UI:

Last Value Cache: Instantly fetch the most recent measurements with millisecond latency. You can now configure caches through Explorer with dropdown selectors for databases and fields.
Distinct Value Cache: Rapidly retrieve unique tag/field values, ideal for powering dropdowns, metadata queries, or building clean user interfaces. Now, these too can be created and managed via Explorer.

Both cache types are available in the sidebar under Configure → Caches in Explorer, making it easy for users to optimize queries without touching config files.

Operational & workflow improvements

InfluxDB 3.4 simplifies setup with automation that removes repetitive steps and gives teams more control. From token provisioning and license management to Homebrew installs, it’s easier to run InfluxDB consistently across Docker Compose, CI/CD, and local development.

Token Provisioning

You can now predefine and provision your tokens instead of creating them manually in InfluxDB. This is especially useful for non-interactive workflows, such as Docker Compose and CI/CD, or when you need to generate many tokens at once. Both operator and admin tokens are supported, along with resource tokens in Enterprise.

Automated Licensing

Instances can now automatically select a trial or at-home license on first start. This removes a manual step and simplifies complex workflows, including Docker Compose setups.

Security, Bug Fixes, and More

InfluxDB 3.4 includes 15+ additional updates and improvements, including suppressing a noisy TableIndexCache log that you may have been seeing a bit too much of recently. Across catalog validations, plugin directory requirements, and InfluxQL updates, this is our most robust release to date. We’ve also added support for a new Azure endpoint and expanded options for token customization. Full details are available in the changelog.

Getting started

InfluxDB 3.4 is available now. To get started, download InfluxDB 3.4 or pull the latest Docker image for Core and Enterprise.

Check out the docs for details, and let us know what you think in Discord or our Community Slack. Your feedback helps shape where we go next.

What’s New in InfluxDB 3.3: Managed Plugins, Explorer Updates, and More

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.3 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, which introduces new managed plugins for the Processing Engine, making it easier to address common time series tasks with just a plugin. On top of that, 3.3 includes a wide range of performance improvements, feature updates, and bug fixes.

New managed plugins (beta)

InfluxDB 3.3 introduces a new set of managed plugins via the InfluxDB Plugin Library, available in beta for both Core and Enterprise. These plugins run inside the Processing Engine and handle common time series tasks (transformation, alerting, downsampling, etc.) right alongside your queries and transformations without extra code, or external services. Install what you need and get on with building.

The new plugins include:

Monitoring and Notification: Define conditions and receive alerts when something important happens.
Downsample: Lower resolution where you don’t need high precision. Save space and speed things up.
Anomaly Detection: Catch outliers and irregular patterns in real-time.
Forecasting: Predict future values based on historical trends.
Metrics Gathering: Instantly gather metrics on your host machine’s activity and performance.

You can use these plugins as is or customize them to your needs. They’re designed to give you building blocks so you can move faster.

InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.1 Update

We introduced InfluxDB 3 Explorer last month with its first official release. Today, we’re launching its first major update, which introduces a new way to discover, install, and manage plugins.

With 1.1, you can now discover new plugins and install them in seconds. You can inspect output logs, edit arguments for fine-tuning, and maintain operational oversight for both plugins from the Plugin Library and your self-created plugins.

Additionally, with the 1.1 update of InfluxDB 3 Explorer, you now get a high-level view of your entire system. From memory pressure to query and write performance, Explorer surfaces detailed insights into the health of your server and all active instances. You can also quickly review the latest queries to identify which ones are putting the most strain on your system’s resources.

Download InfluxDB 3 Explorer to get started.

More operational control

With InfluxDB 3.3, we’re introducing new features that make it easier to operate and maintain your deployment.

First, we’ve added a secure Operator token recovery mechanism. If an Operator token is lost, you can now start a dedicated recovery server using a single flag. It allows regeneration of a new token without prior credentials and automatically shuts down after use to prevent misuse. It’s a small, but critical safety net that solves a longstanding operational pain point.

We’ve also expanded observability to help you better understand system behavior. Write path logs now include database and IP metadata to provide more clarity on ingestion. A new system table for your Processing Engine triggers provides real-time visibility into plugin configurations, making it easier to audit and validate how your Processing Engine is running.

Together, these enhancements give you more control and insight into your system’s operation.

Get started

InfluxDB 3.3 is available today. To get started, download InfluxDB 3.3 or pull the latest Docker image for Core and Enterprise. Additionally, you can discover and contribute new plugins to the Plugin Library.

Check out the docs for details, and let us know what you think in Discord or our Community Slack. Your feedback helps shape where we go next.

What’s Inside InfluxDB 3.1: New Features for Security, Performance, and Visibility

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Thu, 29 May 2025 07:30:00 +0000

InfluxDB 3.1 is now available for both Core and Enterprise editions, bringing significant improvements that make managing high-volume, high-velocity time series data even easier, faster, and more secure.

InfluxDB 3 Core is the free, open source edition of InfluxDB 3—a high-speed, recent-data engine licensed under MIT and Apache 2. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is the commercial version of Core, adding support for longer-term historical queries, high availability, enhanced security, and more.

This release tightens security, accelerates performance, and gives you better visibility into what’s happening in your database while keeping operational overhead low.

Expanded token support

InfluxDB 3.1 includes expanded token support to give you greater control over access, expiration, and privilege boundaries. This significantly enhances security and administrative flexibility, particularly for Enterprise deployments. Enterprise now supports four distinct types of tokens:

Operator Token: A special, non-removable admin token (_admin) with full system privileges.
Admin Tokens: Named tokens with configurable expiration for safe, auditable administration.
Database Tokens: Grant precise read/write access to individual databases.
System Resource Tokens: Allow secure, read-only access to runtime stats and health checks (ideal for monitoring without exposing sensitive internals).

Automatic expiration, regeneration, and resource-based permissions mean you can enforce best practices by default. You can set tokens to automatically expire after specified durations, ensuring your access management remains fresh and secure without manual intervention.

InfluxDB 3 Core also now supports named tokens, making it easier to implement token rotations for lighter deployments.

Cache reloading for Enterprise

With 3.1, we’ve upgraded both the Last Value Cache and the Distinct Value Cache for Enterprise. They now automatically reload on initial creation and restart, backfilling from historical data. That means:

Your dashboard dropdowns load instantly, even after a restart, for great user experience
The most recent values are always available for real-time dashboards and alerting
Less planning around when you decide to create a cache

For anyone running critical monitoring workflows, these changes improve continuity across restarts, maintenance windows, and scaling events.

Enhanced database metrics

InfluxDB 3.1 now gives you more visibility into how your database is running with expanded metrics for catalog operations, query performance, and data ingestion. You can track growth at a granular level, identify slow queries before they become issues, and monitor ingestion in real-time to keep data flowing smoothly. These metrics make it easier to spot inefficiencies early, optimize where it counts, and operate confidently at scale.

And 50+ more improvements

InfluxDB 3.1 includes more than 50 enhancements across Core and Enterprise that get into the finer details of the database. Key highlights include improved memory management for more stable workloads and faster HTTP queries, making operations safer and smoother.

Plus: InfluxDB 3 Explorer Beta 2

InfluxDB 3 Explorer Beta 2 is here, which makes it easier to work with your data, manage your setup, and write queries faster than ever. Beta 2 enables streamlined database and table configuration, comprehensive token management, and substantial improvements to querying capabilities. We’ve also added support for AMD architectures to expand where and how you run it. More enhancements are already in the works, so stay tuned for updates in upcoming releases.

Our path forward and InfluxDB 3.2

We’re continuing to iterate and build new features for both Core and Enterprise based on your feedback. While we launched InfluxDB 3.1 today, our update to 3.2 is just around the corner, landing in June. A main focus is data management, with built-in retention periods down to the table level and hard deletes for databases and tables. Additionally, we will continue to expand on usability, licensing, and security improvements.

Getting started

Upgrade to InfluxDB 3.1 to start using the latest performance, security, and usability improvements. You can download the newest update or pull the latest image from Docker for Core and Enterprise.

Explore the docs for full details, and share your feedback in our Discord or Community Slack to help shape the future of InfluxDB.

Simplifying Multi-Node Setups with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise Modes

Peter Barnett (InfluxData) — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 07:00:00 +0000

As your time series data grows, managing increasing workloads can quickly become a headache. High data ingestion rates, numerous (and complex) queries, intensive processing tasks, and routine maintenance like data compaction often compete for limited resources. This leads to unpredictable performance and slower response times, and common solutions often introduce operational complexity. Achieving reliable, high-performance database operations requires strategic resource management and precise workload isolation.

InfluxDB 3 Enterprise addresses these challenges with specialized node “modes” that simplify multi-node deployments. With distinct modes tailored to handle specific types of workloads, InfluxDB enables seamless scaling, higher availability, and consistent performance for your time series data infrastructure. With Enterprise’s new diskless architecture, data is solely persisted to object storage, creating fault-tolerant setups without information-sharing between nodes. The only requirement is for all nodes to share the same object store connection. This ensures your system can efficiently handle increasing data volumes, minimize downtime, and deliver reliable insights in real-time, even as demand fluctuates—all without increasing operational complexity.

Understanding server modes

InfluxDB 3 Enterprise supports five distinct server modes that let you precisely tailor node functionality to your specific workload requirements:

ingest: Handles incoming writes of time series data without contention from query or compaction processes.
query: Dedicated mode optimized exclusively for handling read operations and queries, ensuring fast response times and consistent performance. Scales horizontally by adding nodes and pointing them at object storage.
compact: Runs compaction processes to optimize storage efficiency, manage storage costs, and maintain high query performance by reducing data fragmentation. You can only have one node running in compact mode per cluster.
process: Specializes in handling internal processing engine tasks and is ideal for custom transformations and real-time analytics operations.
all: Combines ingest, query, compact, and processing functionality in one node. Perfect for small-scale deployments or testing but may impact performance under heavy workloads.

This granular approach to node configuration lets you scale individual workloads independently, isolate tasks to dedicated infrastructure, and achieve more predictable, manageable, and efficient performance across your InfluxDB cluster.

Building a basic two-node setup

Let’s start by building the simplest multi-node configuration. We’ll have one node running all modes and a second node running ingest, query, and process. We do not specify compact on the second node since we can only have one compactor per cluster. This setup gives us basic high availability for ingestion and querying.

Node 1 (All):

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id node01 \
  --mode all \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

Node 2 (Ingest, Query):

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id node02 \
  --mode ingest,query,process \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

2-Node Setup for Basic HA

With this setup, if one node fails, the other seamlessly handles both writes and queries, ensuring uninterrupted operation.

Enhance performance with dedicated compaction

While the two-node setup gives you basic HA, it has some limitations; for starters, one node has to handle compaction, so your nodes won’t serve reads and writes with equal performance. For optimal query and ingestion performance, separate compaction tasks from your primary nodes. This setup avoids resource contention and maintains smooth operations, in addition to creating a single compactor that you can vertically scale on its own to handle more intense workloads.

Nodes 1 & 2 (Ingest, Query, Process):

Configure each ingest/query node the same way, with a simple adjustment to the --node-id option.

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id [NODE_ID] \
  --mode ingest,query,process \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

Node 3 (Compactor)

To set up a dedicated compactor, we simply set the --mode to compact.

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id compactor01 \
  --mode compact \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

3-Node Setup with Dedicated Compactor

In this setup, we’ve isolated the compactor. This ensures that Node A and Node B can serve reads and writes with predictable and similar performance, assuming similar architecture and load distribution. If either A or B fails, compaction will not be impacted, preventing workload build-up on restart.

Full workload isolation with dedicated nodes

We’ve now created a compaction-isolated HA setup but there’s more we can do to achieve even better results. Nodes 1 and 2 both serve reads and writes, which can cause inconsistent performance. For example, if queries come in at manual intervals, ingestion will not be as performant while queries are being served.

For best results, we can leverage full workload isolation by assigning dedicated nodes for ingestion, querying, compaction, and the Processing Engine. This approach optimizes resource utilization and delivers predictable performance.

Nodes 1 & 2 (Ingest):

These nodes handle exclusively write operations. Again, they have the same startup command running in ingest mode, with a change to the --node-id (e.g., ingest_node_1, ingest_node_2).

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id [NODE_ID] \
  --mode ingest \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

Node 3 & 4 (Query):

These nodes exclusively handle query operations. They run solely in query mode, with a slight change to the --node-id (e.g., query_node_1, query_node_2).

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id [NODE_ID] \
  --mode query \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

Node 5 (Compactor):

We’ll run a single compactor alongside our ingest and query nodes.

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id compact01 \
  --mode compact \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

Node 6 (Processing Engine):

Finally, we’ll create a dedicated node for the Processing Engine. This ensures all ETL runs in a dedicated environment. Similar to the compactor, this also enables vertical scaling to improve performance solely on processing power, rather than also scaling ingest/query capacity.

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id process01 \
  --mode process \
  --object-store s3 \
  --bucket influxdb-storage \
  --aws-access-key-id [AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID] \
  --aws-secret-access-key [AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY]

6-Node Setup with Full Workload Isolation

That’s it! With only a few changes to each node’s configuration, you can run a workload-isolated setup without complex overhead. Each instance will work with the others seamlessly, without having to send constant communication streams back and forth, all from the simple configuration pattern.

Summary

We intentionally built InfluxDB 3 Enterprise to simplify the complexities of multi-node deployments. These specialized server modes offer powerful flexibility so you can scale effectively, ensure high availability, and isolate intense processing tasks within their own environments.

The above examples show how you can start small and slowly build a robust setup that fully isolates your workload across multiple nodes. By strategically deploying nodes based on their specific functions, you can optimize performance, reliability, and operational simplicity.

To explore further, check out the InfluxDB 3 Enterprise documentation, where you can learn about its configurability, best practices for HA setups, the Processing Engine, and more.

InfluxData Blog - Peter Barnett

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Summary