Release Announcement: InfluxDB 1.7.0 and Chronograf 1.7.0

By Russ Savage / Product
Nov 07, 2018

Navigate to:

New feature-bearing releases for InfluxDB and Chronograf are available now.

Key feature highlights from the InfluxDB release include:

  1. Performance Improvements
    • Query performance and throughput improvements have been made to the Time Series Index (TSI). This set of improvements boosts the performance of queries in several ways. Queries against indexes with many series sharing the same tag pairs will see faster index planning times. Queries that include previously queried tag pairs will see reduced index planning times due to the TSI index now being able to cache partial index results for later reuse. These improvements require a change in the on-disk TSI format to be utilized. So to take advantage of these improvements, consider rebuilding your indexes (for older shards, this is required) or waiting for a TSI compaction of your current shards/indexes, at which point the new format will be applied.
    • Shard compaction performance has received a significant boost, and this should reduce the resources required to complete the compaction process. In addition, new compaction configuration parameters have been added which allow users to rate limit the compaction process. This fine-tuning is particularly useful for deployments where there are resource constraints, such as IoT edge deployments.
  2. Technical Preview — Flux v0.7
    • Flux is now available for interactive query within the 1.7 release of InfluxDB. This new functional query language unlocks new capabilities within InfluxDB. Direct access is available through the API and via the InfluxCLI which now includes a Flux Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) as well. Flux delivers on a number of long outstanding feature requests for InfluxDB. But it is a technical preview for now and will change and evolve. Additional blog posts will describe how to take advantage of Flux. Documentation for the language is also available now. Please visit the InfluxData Community site to provide feedback on the language and your experiences.

The Chronograf release has a number of new compelling features in addition to user interface improvements, and defect fixes. Please refer to the release notes for specifics:

Key feature highlights from the Chronograf release include:

  1. Feature Additions
    • New Predefined Dashboards for Kubernetes, VMware vSphere, MySQL and more - We have redesigned how you configure a new InfluxDB source in the latest Chronograf to make it more intuitive for new users. As part of this, we allow the user to import predefined dashboards to get them up and running faster. These dashboards are designed to work with specific Telegraf plugins, and have helpful instructions for configuring those plugins in case some measurements are missing.
    • Markdown Notes on Dashboards - Sometimes, it's useful to add comments to your dashboards before sharing them with the rest of the team. We have added the ability to add markdown notes to any cell in Chronograf, as well as a new Notes graph type. Now you can instantly jump to documentation when there are specific problems, or create a list of links to other internal tools in your dashboard.
    • Scoped Annotations - Up until now, annotations have been global for all cells. Now you have the ability to add tags to annotations and filter by those tags. For example, you might want to add a specific hostname to an annotation, and only display annotations for that hostname. We made this as flexible as possible, so that you can create the groupings of annotations that make sense for your team.
  2. UI Improvements
    • Data Explorer Improvements
      • Quickly switch to any source you have configured directly from the Data Explorer page.
      • Leverage any visualization type to explore your data as needed.
      • Send explore queries directly to dashboards from the Data Explorer.
      • View template variable substitutions in your query to see exactly what is being executed.
    • Dashboard Improvements
      • When adding a cell, you specify the query first, and worry about the position later.
      • New button for managing and searching for annotations by tag.
    • Users can switch between different connected Kapacitors directly from the Alert Rule page.
    • And many more!
  3. Technical Preview — Flux Builder
    • Chronograf fully supports the Flux v0.7 language for exploring your data as well as building dashboards. In the Data Explorer page, when you select a source that has Flux enabled, you will be able to switch to the new Flux builder. If you're new to Flux, you can get started with your first script by using the simple wizard, or browsing your schema and selecting the field you want to graph. Once you have the basic query, use the Functions List to see more information about the capabilities of Flux and add examples to your script. While building out your query, it might help to switch to the Raw Data view to see the annotated CSV data being returned. Also, try using the handy keyboard shortcut of control + enter to submit your Flux query after each change.

The binaries for the latest open source release can be found on our downloads page.

The InfluxDB Enterprise 1.7 release will be tested within our InfluxDB Cloud environment first. Based on testing and completion of the integration of Flux with InfluxDB Enterprise, we will release this version later this month. Stay tuned!