Rishabh Varshney
How to Set Up a Monitoring Dashboard with Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf on a Red Hat-based Linux Server

How to Set Up a Monitoring Dashboard with Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf on a Red Hat-based Linux Server

Rishabh Varshney's photo
Rishabh Varshney
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4 min read

How to Set Up a Monitoring Dashboard with Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf on a Red Hat-based Linux Server

Monitoring your systems effectively is key to maintaining performance and resolving issues promptly. This guide walks you through setting up Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf on a Red Hat-based Linux server. These tools form a robust monitoring stack, perfect for real-time insights.

1️⃣ Install InfluxDB

Step 1: Add InfluxDB Repository

# influxdata-archive_compat.key GPG fingerprint:
#     9D53 9D90 D332 8DC7 D6C8 D3B9 D8FF 8E1F 7DF8 B07E
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/influxdata.repo
[influxdata]
name = InfluxData Repository - Stable
baseurl = https://repos.influxdata.com/stable/\$basearch/main
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey = https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key
EOF

Step 2: Install InfluxDB

sudo yum install -y influxdb

Step 3: Start and Enable InfluxDB

sudo systemctl start influxdb
sudo systemctl enable influxdb

Step 4: Verify InfluxDB Installation

Access the InfluxDB UI at http://<your_server_ip>:8086 and create an organization, a bucket (e.g., telegraf), and an API token for authentication.

2️⃣ Install Telegraf

Step 1: Add Telegraf Repository

# influxdata-archive_compat.key GPG fingerprint:
#     9D53 9D90 D332 8DC7 D6C8 D3B9 D8FF 8E1F 7DF8 B07E
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/influxdata.repo
[influxdata]
name = InfluxData Repository - Stable
baseurl = https://repos.influxdata.com/stable/\$basearch/main
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey = https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key
EOF

Step 2: Install Telegraf

sudo yum install -y telegraf

Step 3: Configure Telegraf to Send Metrics to InfluxDB

Edit the Telegraf configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf

Add the following under [[outputs.influxdb]]:
You get token when you login to influxdb

[[outputs.influxdb]]
  urls = ["http://localhost:8086"]
  token = "your_influxdb_api_token"
  organization = "your_org_name"
  bucket = "telegraf"

Step 4: Start and Enable Telegraf

sudo systemctl start telegraf
sudo systemctl enable telegraf

3️⃣ Install Grafana

Step 1: Add Grafana Repository

sudo yum install -y https://dl.grafana.com/enterprise/release/grafana-enterprise-11.4.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Step 2: Install Grafana

sudo yum install -y grafana

Step 3: Start and Enable Grafana

sudo systemctl start grafana-server
sudo systemctl enable grafana-server

Step 4: Access Grafana

Open Grafana in your browser at http://<your_server_ip>:3000. The default credentials are:

  • Username: admin

  • Password: admin

4️⃣ Configure Grafana to Use InfluxDB as a Data Source

  1. In the Grafana UI, navigate to Configuration > Data Sources.

  2. Click Add Data Source and select InfluxDB.

  3. Fill in the following details:

    • URL: http://localhost:8086

    • Token: Use the API token created in InfluxDB.

    • Organization: Your InfluxDB organization name.

    • Bucket: telegraf

  4. Click Save & Test to confirm the connection.

5️⃣ Create Dashboards in Grafana

  1. Go to Dashboards > New Dashboard.

  2. Add panels for metrics like CPU, memory, and disk usage by querying InfluxDB.
    Example Query for CPU:

     from(bucket: "telegraf")
   |> range(start: -1h)
   |> filter(fn: (r) => r["_measurement"] == "cpu")
   |> filter(fn: (r) => r["_field"] == "usage_user")
   |> filter(fn: (r) => r["cpu"] == "cpu-total")

  3. Customize panels to suit your needs and save the dashboard.

6️⃣ Verify the Monitoring Setup

  • Generate system activity to test log collection and visualization.

  • Ensure that metrics are flowing into InfluxDB and are displayed on Grafana.

    7. Troubleshooting Tips

    If you encounter issues during the setup or while monitoring, consider the following troubleshooting steps:

    • InfluxDB Not Running:
      Check the status of InfluxDB with:

        sudo systemctl status influxdb

      If it’s not running, restart it:

        sudo systemctl start influxdb

    • Telegraf Not Sending Metrics:

      • Verify Telegraf's status:
        sudo systemctl status telegraf
  • Check the Telegraf logs for errors:
        journalctl -u telegraf -f

  • Ensure the InfluxDB URL, token, and bucket in the Telegraf config are correct.

    • Grafana Not Displaying Data:

  • Confirm the data source configuration in Grafana is correct.

  • Check if the queries you are using in Grafana panels are returning data.

  • Examine Grafana logs for any errors:

        sudo journalctl -u grafana-server -f

  • Authorization Issues:
    If you receive unauthorized errors, ensure that:

    • The API token in Telegraf is valid and has the necessary permissions.

    • The organization and bucket names are spelled correctly in the configuration.

Conclusion

By combining Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana, you now have a comprehensive monitoring solution on your Red Hat-based Linux server. This setup provides real-time insights into system performance, making it easier to maintain and troubleshoot infrastructure.

Feel free to share your feedback or ask any questions. Happy monitoring! 🎉

#Grafana #InfluxDB #Telegraf #Linux #DevOps #Monitoring

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