Installation of InfluxDB 3 Core Issue

I am a new user of influxdb and I must say the following things:

  1. Documentation is lacking; “Use the following command to download and install the appropriate InfluxDB 3 Core package on your local machine:” with no description of options or what should be selected from the user installation side. Should be simple, but process errors out with a generic error.
  2. Scripts error with little/no information other than the equivalent of “something happened”;
└─ ERROR: InfluxDB failed to start; check permissions or other potential issues.

I can say the installation never succeeds and this is why I get the error.

Is there a reference to actual documentation I can use with a walkthrough?

1 Like

are you using docker or binary install and in what OS?

running into similar issues.

I am using a fresh install of Ubuntu server 24.04.2
the installation is below:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Welcome to InfluxDB! We'll make this quick.       │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Select Installation Type

1) Docker Image
   └─ Requires knowledge of Docker and Docker management
2) Simple Download
   └─ No external dependencies required

Enter your choice (1-2): 2


Downloading InfluxDB 3 Core to /root/.influxdb
├─ mkdir -p '/root/.influxdb'
└─ curl -sSL 'https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb3-core-3.0.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz' -o '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz'

Verifying '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz'
└─ curl -sSL 'https://dl.influxdata.com/influxdb/releases/influxdb3-core-3.0.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz.sha256' -o '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz.sha256'
└─ sha256sum '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz' (OK: 289c281975052eca0b54051628c801cd72aa1929c365efa48d1480b63ffa9dd1 = 289c281975052eca0b54051628c801cd72aa1929c365efa48d1480b63ffa9dd1)
└─ rm '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz.sha256'

Extracting and Processing
├─ tar -xf '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz' --strip-components=1 -C '/root/.influxdb'
└─ rm '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3-core.tar.gz'

Configuration Options
└─ Start InfluxDB Now? (y/n): y

Enter Your Node ID
├─ A Node ID is a unique, uneditable identifier for a service.
└─ Enter a Node ID (default: node0):

Select Your Storage Solution
├─ 1) In-memory storage (Fastest, data cleared on restart)
├─ 2) File storage (Persistent local storage)
├─ 3) Object storage (Cloud-compatible storage)
└─ Enter your choice (1-3): 2

Enter storage path (default: /root/.influxdb/data):

Starting InfluxDB
├─ Node ID: node0
├─ Storage: File Storage
├─ '/root/.influxdb/influxdb3' serve --node-id='node0' --http-bind='0.0.0.0:8181' --object-store=file --data-dir /root/.influxdb/data
└─ ERROR: InfluxDB failed to start; check permissions or other potential issues.

Going to through the installation routine influxdata.com/d/install_influxdb3.sh → the error occurs, if the request to the health endpoint is either time out or not successful
"curl --max-time 3 -s "http://localhost:$PORT/health"

What are the default network & firewall setting and or permissions which the executing user applies? I would check on that.
Hope this helps

1 Like

probably not a good location to install in
/root/.influxdb

maybe look into installing here?

/usr/local:

how experienced are you with Ubuntu permissions? don’t want to assume

@yosiasz I understand the permissions thing and that it is bad to run as root, but this is strictly a test to see if I can even get data into the DB before I truly setup the DB. I am using it as a longer retention for home assistant.
Changing the location gave me the same generic error as before.

have you given the needed permissions in that folder? I would assume the influxdb process/service needs read/write permissions?