Exploring the Telegraf Database via InfluxCLI

1. Launch the InfluxCLI

Use the CLI on your local machine to connect to your InfluxCloud instance or cluster by entering the following command from your terminal, filling in <your_InfluxCloud_hostname> with your InfluxCloud hostname AND adding the -precision rfc3339 to the usual connection string:

influx -host <your host name> -port 8086 -username $INFLUX_USERNAME -password $INFLUX_PASSWORD -ssl -precision rfc3339

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Notes: If you set the INFLUX_USERNAME and INFLUX_PASSWORD environment variables, you can eliminate them from your connection string.
Do not include the ‘https://’ or port as part of the host name. Specifying -precision rfc3339 tells the CLI to format timestamps as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.nnnnnnnnnZ (more on timestamps to come). Specifying -ssl tells the CLI to use HTTPS for requests. For more CLI configurations, see the InfluxDB CLI/Shell documentation.

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2. Explore Databases and Measurements

Execute InfluxQL’s SHOW DATABASES command in the CLI to see your new database:

> SHOW DATABASES
name: databases
---------------
name
state_fair_db
telegraf

Check out the data in your new database with the following queries:

> USE telegraf
Using database telegraf

> SHOW MEASUREMENTS
name: measurements
------------------
name
cpu
mem

> SELECT usage_idle FROM cpu WHERE cpu='cpu-total' LIMIT 4
name: cpu
---------
time			        usage_idle
2016-04-07T00:56:10Z	99.89999999999782
2016-04-07T00:56:20Z	99.89999999999782
2016-04-07T00:56:30Z	99.89999999999782
2016-04-07T00:56:40Z	100

The usage_idle field in the measurement cpu shows the idle cpu percentage on your local machine. By default, Telegraf collects points every ten seconds; this is a configurable setting.

You’ve now successfully configured Telegraf to collect data and write data to InfluxCloud. To learn more about the system metrics Telegraf is sending to your instance or cluster, as well as more information about what you can do with Telegraf see our Telegraf documentation.