Getting started with Timestream for InfluxDB 3

Setting up Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB 3

Before you use Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB for the first time, complete the following tasks:

If you already have an AWS account, know your Timestream for InfluxDB requirements, and prefer to use the defaults for IAM and Amazon VPC, skip to Creating and connecting to a Timestream for InfluxDB instance.

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

2. Follow the online instructions.

   Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call or text message and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

   When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

   For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

   For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

   For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

   For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

• To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

  For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

   For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

   For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Grant programmatic access

Users need programmatic access if they want to interact with AWS outside of the AWS Management Console. The way to grant programmatic access depends on the type of user that's accessing AWS:

• For workforce identity (Users managed in AWS IAM Identity Center): Use temporary credentials

• For IAM users: Use temporary credentials or long-term credentials (not recommended)

Determine requirements

Before you create a DB instance and a security group, you must know your DB instance and network needs. Here are some important things to consider:

• Resource requirements – What are the memory and processor requirements for your application or service?

• VPC and security group – Your DB instance will most likely be in a virtual private cloud (VPC). To connect to your DB instance, you need to set up security group rules.

• High availability – Do you need failover support?

• IAM policies – Does your AWS account have policies that grant the permissions needed to perform Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB operations?

• Open ports – What TCP/IP port does your database listen on? The default for Timestream for InfluxDB is 8086.

• AWS Region – What AWS Region do you want your database in?

• DB disk subsystem – What are your storage requirements?

Provide access to your DB instance in your VPC by creating a security group

VPC security groups provide access to DB instances in a VPC. They act as a firewall for the associated DB instance, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the DB instance level. DB instances are created by default with a firewall and a default security group that protect the DB instance.

To create a VPC security group:

1. In the AWS Management Console, choose VPC.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Security Groups.

3. Choose Create security group.

4. Enter a name, description, and select your VPC.

5. Add inbound rules for Custom TCP with appropriate source settings.

6. Create the security group.

Creating and connecting to a Timestream for InfluxDB instance

Connecting to a Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB DB instance uses token authentication.

The connection information includes endpoint, port, username, password, and a valid access token. You can find this information using the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.

You can create access tokens using:

• The InfluxDB CLI

• The InfluxDB 3 Explorer

• The InfluxDB API

The following procedure creates both an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instance and a Timestream for InfluxDB DB cluster, and shows you how to write data to the DB instance from the Amazon EC2 instance using the Telegraf client.

Step 1: Create an Amazon EC2 instance

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EC2 console.

2. Choose the AWS Region where you want to create the Amazon EC2 instance.

3. Choose Amazon EC2 Dashboard, then Launch instance.

4. Configure your Amazon EC2 instance with appropriate settings .

Step 2: Create an InfluxDB 3 instance

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Timestream for InfluxDB console.

2. In the navigation pane, choose InfluxDB Databases.

3. Choose Create InfluxDB 3 database.

4. After selecting InfluxDB 3, choose between the Core and Enterprise editions. For this tutorial, where you'll be ingesting data from a single Amazon EC2 instance and running test queries, the Core edition is sufficient for your needs.

5. Configure your DB instance with appropriate settings. For specific engine configurations, you can select from an existing parameter group or create a new one. If no custom configuration is needed, simply proceed and a default parameter group will be automatically created for your instance.

6. Configure your instance size and network settings. Pay special attention to the network configuration. If you choose a private instance, ensure it's accessible from your Amazon EC2 instance's VPC by selecting the appropriate VPC, subnets, and security groups that allow connectivity between your Amazon EC2 instance and the InfluxDB instance.

7. Choose Create InfluxDB database.

8. Wait for your DB instance to become available.

Step 3: Access the InfluxDB Explorer

To access your InfluxDB instance through the InfluxDB Explorer:

1. Download the InfluxDB Explorer from https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/explorer/

2. For private DB instances, run the Explorer from within the same VPC (using an Amazon EC2 instance or bastion host).

3. For publicly accessible DB instances, you can run the Explorer from any location with internet access.

4. Configure the Explorer with your cluster endpoint and credentials.

Step 4: Send Telegraf data to your InfluxDB instance

1. Connect to your InfluxDB instance using the InfluxDB Explorer and generate an API token.

2. Connect to your Amazon EC2 instance and install Telegraf.

3. Configure Telegraf to send data to your InfluxDB instance.

4. Enable and start the Telegraf service.

Step 5: Delete the Amazon EC2 instance and the InfluxDB DB instance

After you explore the Telegraf-generated data, delete both your Amazon EC2 and your InfluxDB DB instances to avoid being charged for them.