InfluxDB

VictoriaMetrics components like vmagent, vminsert or single-node can receive inserts via InfluxDB line protocol.

Additional resources:

• How to Migrate from InfluxDB to VictoriaMetrics
• Data model differences

See full list of InfluxDB-related configuration flags by running:

/path/to/victoria-metrics-prod --help | grep influx

InfluxDB-compatible agents such as Telegraf

Use http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428 URL instead of InfluxDB URL in agent configs:

[[outputs.influxdb]]
  urls = ["http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428"]

Replace <victoriametrics-addr> with the VictoriaMetrics hostname or IP address.

For cluster version use vminsert address:

http://<vminsert-addr>:8480/insert/<tenant>/influx

Replace <vminsert-addr> with the hostname or IP address of vminsert service.

If you have more than 1 vminsert, configure load-balancing. Replace <tenant> based on your multitenancy settings.

In case of http output:

[[outputs.http]]
  url = "http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/influx/write"
  data_format = "influx"
  non_retryable_statuscodes = [400]

Some plugins for Telegraf such as fluentd, Juniper/open-nti or Juniper/jitmon send SHOW DATABASES query to /query and expect a particular database name in the response. Comma-separated list of expected databases can be passed to VictoriaMetrics via -influx.databaseNames command-line flag.

InfluxDB v2 format

VictoriaMetrics exposes endpoint for InfluxDB v2 HTTP API at /influx/api/v2/write and /api/v2/write.

Here's an example writing data with curl:

curl --data-binary 'measurement1,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=123,field2=1.23' -X POST 'http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v2/write'

And to write multiple lines of data at once, prepare a file (e.g., influx.data) with your data:

measurement2,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=456,field2=4.56
measurement3,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=789,field2=7.89

And execute this command to import the data:

curl -X POST 'http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v2/write' --data-binary @influx.data

The /api/v1/export endpoint should return the following response:

{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement1_field1","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[123],"timestamps":[1766983684142]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement1_field2","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[1.23],"timestamps":[1766983684142]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement2_field1","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[456],"timestamps":[1767012583021]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement2_field2","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[4.56],"timestamps":[1767012583021]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement3_field1","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[789],"timestamps":[1767012583021]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement3_field2","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[7.89],"timestamps":[1767012583021]}

Data transformations

VictoriaMetrics performs the following transformations to the ingested InfluxDB data:

• db query arg is mapped into db label value unless db tag exists in the InfluxDB line. The db label name can be overridden via -influxDBLabel command-line flag. If more strict data isolation is required, read more about multi-tenancy here.
• Field names are mapped to time series names prefixed with {measurement}{separator} value, where {separator} equals to _ by default. It can be changed with -influxMeasurementFieldSeparator command-line flag. See also -influxSkipSingleField command-line flag. If {measurement} is empty or if -influxSkipMeasurement command-line flag is set, then time series names correspond to field names.
• Field values are mapped to time series values.
• Non-numeric field values are converted to 0.
• Tags are mapped to Prometheus labels as-is.
• If -usePromCompatibleNaming command-line flag is set, then all the metric names and label names are normalized to Prometheus-compatible naming by replacing unsupported chars with _. For example, foo.bar-baz/1 metric name or label name is substituted with foo_bar_baz_1.

For example, the following InfluxDB line:

foo,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=12,field2=40

is converted into the following Prometheus data points:

foo_field1{tag1="value1", tag2="value2"} 12
foo_field2{tag1="value1", tag2="value2"} 40

Example for writing data with InfluxDB line protocol to local VictoriaMetrics using curl:

curl -d 'measurement,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=123,field2=1.23' -X POST 'http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/write'

An arbitrary number of lines delimited by '\n' (aka newline char) can be sent in a single request.

Note: The above refers to newline characters (\n) used as line separators between multiple points. According to the Influx Line Protocol specification, raw newline bytes must not appear inside quoted tag or field values. For example:

textCopy

SystemProperties.line.separator="
"

A raw newline inside a quoted value will result in a parsing error.

If metrics are generated by Telegraf and written to VictoriaMetrics, fields containing raw newline characters (such as SystemProperties.line.separator) can be pre-processed using a regex processor to escape newline characters before serialization. For example:

[agent]
  interval = "60s"
  flush_interval = "30s"
  debug = true

[[inputs.jolokia2_agent]]
  urls = ["http://springboot:8080/jolokia"]
  name_prefix = "springBoot."

  [[inputs.jolokia2_agent.metric]]
    name = "JavaRuntime"
    mbean = "java.lang:type=Runtime"
    paths = ["SystemProperties"]

[[processors.regex]]
  namepass = ["springBoot.JavaRuntime"]

  [[processors.regex.fields]]
    key = "SystemProperties.line.separator"
    pattern = '\n'
    replacement = '\\n'

[[outputs.influxdb]]
  urls = ["http://victoriametrics:8428"]
  skip_database_creation = true

This ensures the newline is properly escaped and the metric can be ingested successfully.

After that the data may be read via /api/v1/export endpoint:

curl -G 'http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v1/export' -d 'match={__name__=~"measurement_.*"}'

The /api/v1/export endpoint should return the following response:

{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement_field1","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[123],"timestamps":[1560272508147]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement_field2","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[1.23],"timestamps":[1560272508147]}

InfluxDB line protocol expects timestamps in nanoseconds by default, but VictoriaMetrics stores them with milliseconds precision. It is allowed to ingest timestamps with seconds, microseconds or nanoseconds precision - VictoriaMetrics will automatically convert them to milliseconds.

Extra labels may be added to all the written time series by passing extra_label=name=value query args. For example, /write?extra_label=foo=bar would add {foo="bar"} label to all the ingested metrics.

Tuning

The maximum request size for Influx HTTP endpoints is limited by -influx.maxRequestSize (default: 64MB).

For better ingestion speed and lower memory use, enable stream processing. You can do this in two ways:

• Add Stream-Mode: 1 HTTP header in your request.
• Set the -influx.forceStreamMode flag to enable it for all requests.

In stream mode:

• Data is processed one line at a time (see -influx.maxLineSize).
• Invalid lines are skipped and logged.
• Valid lines are ingested immediately, even if the client disconnects partway through.

You can also enable InfluxDB line protocol over TCP or UDP with -influxListenAddr. Just send plain Influx lines to the specified address. Note: TCP and UDP receivers always use streaming mode.