computer science

InfluxDB

InfluxDB is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand InfluxDB rather than just read about it. In short: InfluxDB is a time series database (TSDB) developed by the company InfluxData. It is used for storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operations monitoring, application metrics, Internet of Things sensor data, and real-time analytics.

Key takeaways

InfluxDB belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect InfluxDB to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of InfluxDB from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

InfluxDB is a time series database (TSDB) developed by the company InfluxData. It is used for storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operations monitoring, application metrics, Internet of Things sensor data, and real-time analytics. It also has support for processing data from Graphite. The latest version of InfluxDB, 3.x, is written in the Rust programming language. Versions 1.x and 2.x are written in Go.

History Y Combinator-backed company Errplane began developing InfluxDB as an open-source project in late 2013 for performance monitoring and alerting. Errplane raised an $8.1M Series A financing led by Mayfield Fund and Trinity Ventures in November 2014. In late 2015, Errplane officially changed its name to InfluxData Inc. InfluxData raised Series B round of funding of $16 million in September 2016. In February 2018, InfluxData closed a $35 million Series C round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures. Another round of $60 million was disclosed in 2019. In February 2023, another $81 million was closed in a Series E round.

Technical overview InfluxDB provides an SQL-like language with built-in time-centric functions for querying a data structure composed of measurements, series, and points. Each point consists of several key-value pairs called the fieldset and a timestamp. When grouped together by a set of key-value pairs called the tagset, these define a series. Finally, series are grouped together by a string identifier to form a measurement. Values can be 64-bit integers, 64-bit floating points, strings, and booleans. Points are indexed by their time and tagset. Retention policies are defined on a measurement and control how data is downsampled and deleted. Continuous Queries run periodically, storing results in a target measurement.

Events InfluxData regularly hosts events related to InfluxDB called InfluxDays. The InfluxDays are technical conventions focused on the evolution of InfluxDB on technical and business points of view. Those events take place once a year in three locations: New York, San Francisco or London. The InfluxDays cover a wide variety of different subjects: software engineering and coding talks as well as business-focused and practical workshops. Companies can showcase how they use InfluxDB.

Line protocol InfluxDB accepts data via HTTP, TCP, and UDP. It defines a line protocol backwards compatible with Graphite and takes the form:

measurement(,tag_key=tag_val)* field_key=field_val(,field_key_n=field_value_n)* (nanoseconds-timestamp)?

Licensing Contributors to InfluxDB need to give InfluxData Inc. the right to license the contributions and the rest of the software in any way, including under a closed-source license. The Contributor License Agreement claims not to be a copyright transfer agreement.

Closed source clustering components In May 2016, InfluxData announced that the computer cluster component of InfluxDB would be sold as closed-source software in order to create a sustainable source of funding for the project's development. Community reaction was mixed, with some feeling the move was a "bait and switch".

InfluxDB 3 changes open source offerings InfluxDB 3 Core is InfluxData's newest open source product and is intentionally designed to be an “edge data collector”, not a replacement for InfluxDB OSS v1 and v2. InfluxDB 3 Core has a 5 database limit and does not include a data compactor for fast historical querying. In addition to InfluxDB 3 Core, InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is the commercial version of the open source core project. Purchasing a software license for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is required to replace InfluxDB OSS v1 and v2 functionality in a commercial setting, though a free version of InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is available for hobbyist and home use.

References

External links Official website influxdb on GitHub

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with InfluxDB

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what InfluxDB claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to InfluxDB before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about InfluxDB ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of InfluxDB

In research: InfluxDB appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses InfluxDB in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: InfluxDB is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2013 software, Free software programmed in Rust, Software using the MIT license, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for InfluxDB outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study InfluxDB in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what InfluxDB means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain InfluxDB out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is InfluxDB in simple terms?

Why does InfluxDB matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study InfluxDB?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on InfluxDB.