How to move /var/lib/influxdb to a different location?

InfluxDB 2
1

I need to move my database to a different partition.
So my idea was to rsync everything over to let’s say /mnt/influxdb and then create a symlink from /var/lib/influxdb to /mnt/influxdb
But starting the service via systemd fails with no specific reason.
Testwise I started /usr/lib/influxdb/scripts/influxd-systemd-start.sh
But I get the following error message, probably because I cannot start the script as user influxdb:
2023-05-26T23:05:42.961669Z info Unauthorized {“log_id”: “0i2_cjaG000”, “error”: “authorization not found”}

What needs to be done to accomplish what I want?

2

Hello @penholder,
I’m not sure. I haven’t seen a user try that before I don’t think I’m asking around.

3

I don’t understand. Why would you have to ask around?
I’d just like to know why this obvious method (creating a symlink to the new location) doesn’t work with influxdb.
Creators of the db would know if there are hardcoded dependencies to the original location.

4

Rather than using symlinks, I would suggest using the configuration options for bolt-path, engine-path and sqlite-path to tell influxd where the new files are located.

5

@Jeffrey
Could you please elaborate why?
Symlinks seems easier to me. Since I know what I’m doing. And the other option seems rather complicated.

6

Instead of symlinks you could also try bind mounts. They usually work more reliable than symlinks as they are transparent to the application.

1 Like
7

@Alestrix
Excellent tip.
Thank you very much!