InfluxDB Grafana Retention Policy Proxy

Proxy inserted between Grafana and InfluxDB which auto-selects an InfuxDB retention policy based on the timeframe and the size of the GROUP BY interval specified in queries from Grafana.

Until InfluxDB either

a) intelligently merges data points from different retention policies at query time (perhaps through layers for RPs?)

b) implements downsampling internally

a proxy such as this one will be required to effectively use Grafana with an InfluxDB containing downsampled data. Watch the GitHub issue for progress.

This proxy

• assumes series names and tags are identical across retention policies.
• assumes database and retention policies do not have periods (.) in their names (it's OK if series do).

Original code: @PaulKuiper influxdata/influxdb#2625 (comment)

Installation

Ubuntu 14.04 setup:

$ sudo apt-get install python-regex python-requests mitmproxy

Or use pip one you've cloned this repo:

$ sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

Since this proxy maps Grafana queries to InfluxDB queries w/additional specifications on retention policies, it's important that this proxy's configuration and the retention policies in InfluxDB are in sync.

The default configuration of this proxy corresponds to the InfluxDB database configuration described below.

If you change one, make sure to change the other.

The default configuration works well with data being sourced from collection systems at a raw frequency of 5-10 seconds and being viewed from Grafana.

Database

The following is just an example, written to match the default configuration.

1. Create database with retention policies:

CREATE DATABASE operations WITH DURATION 24h REPLICATION 1 NAME for_1d_raw
CREATE RETENTION POLICY for_7d_at_1m ON operations DURATION 7d REPLICATION 1
CREATE RETENTION POLICY for_90d_at_10m ON operations DURATION 90d REPLICATION 1
CREATE RETENTION POLICY forever_at_1h ON operations DURATION INF REPLICATION 1

2. Create Continuous Queries

CREATE CONTINUOUS QUERY "for_1d_raw->for_7d_at_1m" ON operations RESAMPLE EVERY 30s BEGIN SELECT mean(value) AS value INTO operations."for_7d_at_1m".:MEASUREMENT FROM operations."for_1d_raw"./.*/ GROUP BY time(1m), * END
CREATE CONTINUOUS QUERY "for_7d_at_1m->for_90d_at_10m" ON operations RESAMPLE EVERY 5m BEGIN SELECT mean(value) AS value INTO operations."for_90d_at_10m".:MEASUREMENT FROM operations."for_7d_at_1m"./.*/ GROUP BY time(10m), * END
CREATE CONTINUOUS QUERY "for_90d_at_10m->forever_at_1h" ON operations RESAMPLE EVERY 30m BEGIN SELECT mean(value) AS value INTO operations."forever_at_1h".:MEASUREMENT FROM operations."for_90d_at_10m"./.*/ GROUP BY time(1h), * END

The , * and the end of the GROUP BY clause ensures that InfluxDB uses the full series name (including tags) for grouping.

3. Backfill historical data 90 days (only if needed).

SELECT mean(value) as value INTO operations."for_7d_at_1m".:MEASUREMENT  FROM operations."for_1d_raw"./.*/  WHERE time > now() - 90d GROUP BY time(1m), *
SELECT mean(value) as value INTO operations."for_90d_at_10m".:MEASUREMENT FROM operations."for_7d_at_1m"./.*/ WHERE time > now() - 90d GROUP BY time(10m), *
SELECT mean(value) as value INTO operations."forever_at_1h".:MEASUREMENT FROM operations."for_90d_at_10m"./.*/ WHERE time > now() - 90d GROUP BY time(1h), *

Proxy

The default configuration file is simple and documented. It is intended to match the InfluxDB database setup described above.

Usage

This proxy is intended to be run as a script for the mitmdump tool.

To run using the default configuration file:

$ mitmdump --reverse "http:/localhost:8086" --port 3004 --script 'proxy.py default.yml'

If you've configured your InfluxDB database and this proxy to match, Now configure Grafana to use an "InfluxDB server" at localhost:3004, instead of the actual InfluxDB server (localhost:8086 in this example).

To run with your own, custom configuration file:

$ mitmdump --reverse "http:/localhost:8086" --port 3004 --script 'proxy.py /path/to/my/config.yml'

Note: Ensure that the influxdb_url setting in your proxy configuration file matches the InfluxDB --reverse URL you pass to mitmdump. (It would be nice to DRY this up...)