Comma-separated list of hostnames in Variable - No results except for default host

InfluxDB 2
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1

Using a docker container that has InfluxDB, Telegraf, and Grafana.

What I want to do: in my InfluxDB dashboard, use the Variable menu to select a different host and show the stats for that host.

The cells of the dashboards use v.host as a variable, so they should show that host’s data.

The Variables in Influxdb are defined as CSV: “myserver1”, “myserver2”, “myserver3”.

The telegraf.conf file has in the [[agent]] section a default host of “myserver1”.

What actually happens: dashboard shows data fine for “myserver1”, but as soon as I choose “myserver2” or “myserver3”, no data is displayed.

How do I obtain my objective?

2

@Guy_Levin The default hostname written by Telegraf is the value returned by os.Hostname(). If you set the hostname config under [[agent]] in your Telegraf config, it overrides the default hostname (see the [[agent]] config docs). So if you’re using the same telegraf.conf on multiple machines, your current setting makes it so they all have the host=myserver1.

I’d do one of the following:

  • Leave the [[agent]].hostname config empty so it’s automatically set by the OS.
  • Create a telegraf.conf for each host with a unique hostname.

I’d suggest the former, but you may need to update the hostname of each host to get the specific hostnames you’re looking for.

3

That was clear.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think my understanding of the telegraf.conf usage was flawed.

Right now, I just have one instance of Telegraf running on my local computer (from a Docker container), pulling the metrics from myserver1.

It sounds like it is expected to have Telegraf running on each host to be monitored. But what if I am restricted from installing Telegraf on the remote servers? If I understand correctly, it sounds like one instance of Telegraf isn’t meant to pull metrics from multiple servers. If that is the case, this idea of having a “hostname” menu wouldn’t work.

Thanks

4

@Guy_Levin It depends on which Telegraf input plugins you’re using. If you’re using the basic system plugins (cpu, mem, disk, etc), as far as I know, those only collect metrics from the current host. But other input plugins, like the prometheus plugin, can scrape metrics from a remote endpoint.