Telegraf

Key Features

• 300+ input plugins including Docker containers, system metrics, SNMP devices, databases, message queues, and cloud services
• Native InfluxDB line protocol integration with automatic schema creation and tag/field optimization
• Built-in data processing with aggregation, transformation, and filtering processors before storage
• Automatic service discovery for dynamic environments including Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms
• Multiple output destinations supporting simultaneous writes to InfluxDB, Prometheus, Kafka, and other systems
• InfluxDB 2.0 organization and bucket-based data isolation with token-based authentication
• Flux query language support for advanced analytics, predictions, and cross-measurement joins
• Configurable data retention policies and downsampling for long-term storage optimization

Common Use Cases

• 1Infrastructure monitoring for servers, containers, and network devices with centralized metrics storage
• 2IoT sensor data collection and analysis for manufacturing, environmental monitoring, or smart building systems
• 3Application performance monitoring with custom metrics, database query times, and business KPIs
• 4DevOps pipeline monitoring including build times, deployment frequencies, and error rates
• 5Network monitoring through SNMP polling of switches, routers, and other network infrastructure
• 6Database performance tracking for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and other database systems
• 7Cloud resource monitoring across AWS, Azure, and GCP with cost and utilization metrics

Prerequisites

• Minimum 1GB RAM for InfluxDB with additional memory scaling based on cardinality and retention periods
• Port 8086 available for InfluxDB HTTP API and web interface access
• Docker socket access (/var/run/docker.sock) mounted for container monitoring capabilities
• Understanding of time-series concepts including tags, fields, and measurement schemas for optimal data modeling
• Telegraf configuration knowledge for input/output plugin setup and metric collection intervals
• Network connectivity from monitored systems to Telegraf agent for remote monitoring scenarios

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  influxdb: 
3    image: influxdb:2
4    container_name: influxdb
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    environment: 
7      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_MODE: setup
8      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME: admin
9      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD: ${INFLUXDB_PASSWORD}
10      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ORG: myorg
11      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_BUCKET: telegraf
12    volumes: 
13      - influxdb_data:/var/lib/influxdb2
14    ports: 
15      - "8086:8086"
16    networks: 
17      - telegraf-network
18
19  telegraf: 
20    image: telegraf:latest
21    container_name: telegraf
22    restart: unless-stopped
23    volumes: 
24      - ./telegraf/telegraf.conf:/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf:ro
25      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
26    depends_on: 
27      - influxdb
28    networks: 
29      - telegraf-network
30
31volumes: 
32  influxdb_data: 
33
34networks: 
35  telegraf-network: 
36    driver: bridge

.env Template

1INFLUXDB_PASSWORD=changeme123

Usage Notes

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

influxdb:
  image: influxdb:2
  container_name: influxdb
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_MODE: setup
    DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME: admin
    DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD: ${INFLUXDB_PASSWORD}
    DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ORG: myorg
    DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_BUCKET: telegraf
  volumes:
    - influxdb_data:/var/lib/influxdb2
  ports:
    - "8086:8086"
  networks:
    - telegraf-network

telegraf:
  image: telegraf:latest
  container_name: telegraf
  restart: unless-stopped
  volumes:
    - ./telegraf/telegraf.conf:/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf:ro
    - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
  depends_on:
    - influxdb
  networks:
    - telegraf-network

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  influxdb:
5    image: influxdb:2
6    container_name: influxdb
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    environment:
9      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_MODE: setup
10      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_USERNAME: admin
11      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_PASSWORD: ${INFLUXDB_PASSWORD}
12      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ORG: myorg
13      DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_BUCKET: telegraf
14    volumes:
15      - influxdb_data:/var/lib/influxdb2
16    ports:
17      - "8086:8086"
18    networks:
19      - telegraf-network
20
21  telegraf:
22    image: telegraf:latest
23    container_name: telegraf
24    restart: unless-stopped
25    volumes:
26      - ./telegraf/telegraf.conf:/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf:ro
27      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
28    depends_on:
29      - influxdb
30    networks:
31      - telegraf-network
32
33volumes:
34  influxdb_data:
35
36networks:
37  telegraf-network:
38    driver: bridge
39EOF
40
41# 2. Create the .env file
42cat > .env << 'EOF'
43INFLUXDB_PASSWORD=changeme123
44EOF
45
46# 3. Start the services
47docker compose up -d
48
49# 4. View logs
50docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/telegraf/run | bash

Troubleshooting