Deploy the InfluxData Platform (TICK stack) in Docker containers

The quickest way to start using the InfluxData Platform (TICK stack) OSS is to download and deploy the InfluxData Sandbox. The InfluxData Sandbox uses Docker containers to deploy the InfluxData Platform components. The InfluxData Sandbox provides a containerized, ready-to-use TICK stack, built using Docker and Docker Compose, to capture data from your local machine and the Docker containers.

After deploying using the InfluxData Sandbox, you will have the latest versions of:

• Telegraf
• InfluxDB OSS
• Chronograf
• Kapacitor OSS

Requirements

• Linux or macOS (Windows support is experimental)
• Git
• Docker
• Docker Compose (Packaged with Docker for Mac)

Download and run the Sandbox

The InfluxData Sandbox is open source and is available for download from Github. To download it, use git to clone the source repository:

# Clone the InfluxData Sandbox from Github
git clone https://github.com/influxdata/sandbox.git

The Sandbox repo includes a sandbox binary used to provision and manage the Sandbox’s containers and data. Run ./sandbox up from inside the sandbox directory to download the necessary images, then build and start all the required Docker containers.

# cd into the sandbox directory
cd sandbox

# Start the sandbox
./sandbox up

Once started, two tabs will open in your browser:

1. Chronograf (localhost:8888)
2. InfluxData Sandbox Documentation (localhost:3010)

Chronograf is the web-based user interface for the TICK stack and can be used to manage the stack. You can use Chronograf to:

• query and explore data
• create Kapacitor alerts
• preview data visualizations
• build custom dashboards

Using nightly builds

The ./sandbox up command includes a -nightly option that will pull nightly builds for InfluxDB and Chronograf, giving you the most recent updates and experimental functionality.

./sandbox up -nightly

Interacting with the Sandbox TICK stack

With the Sandbox running, each component of the TICK stack is available to work with. The Sandbox documentation provides tutorials for interacting with each component. The documentation is available at localhost:3010/tutorials (with the Sandbox running) or on Github.

All configuration files, tools, and CLIs needed for managing each component of the TICK stack are included in their respective Docker containers. Tasks outlined throughout the InfluxData documentation can be accomplished using the InfluxData Sandbox.

The ./sandbox enter command opens a console inside the specified container where the project’s configuration files and CLIs are available.

# Pattern
./sandbox enter [ telegraf | influxdb | chronograf | kapacitor ]

# Example: console into the telegraf container
./sandbox enter telegraf