AutoPi to InfluxDB Success

[Daniel_Blair]

With the new update supporting MQTT, I have successfully now got the metrics posting directly into Influx and the cloud. Now I can display this using Grafana.

I mostly had to do this when when the autopi api site is under additional load and takes along time to respond.

MQTT > Telegraf > InfluxDB > Grafana

If anyone’s interested Ill write up some detailed instructions

[zanoii]

I’m thinking of doing this exact thing and I’d love some semi-detailed instructions!

[Daniel_Blair]

Thanks @zanoii I’ll write something up this weekend

[dasTholo]

Maybe, with the new option to run docker container at the autopi. It would be possible to host the influxdb and grafana locally. Maybe useful if you have a display on the Autopi.
But this is just an idea, if the 4G reception is not sufficient.

I am also interested in your solution. Looking forward to your guide

[Daniel_Blair]

I’m using Ubuntu running in a virtual machine. This could also be done on another Pi 3 or 4, I wouldn’t recommend doing this on the AutoPi itself. I’m using the 4G AutoPi Telematics Unit, Im not sure how well the telegraf agent would work on a wifi only device. I apologise in advance if anyone finds this poorly written.

I am using the Grafana-kiosk on another Pi connected to my virtual machine to display the dashboard.

On the Virtual Machine or secondary Pi

1. Install InfluxDB 1.8 and above (Some issues with previous versions)
   Set influx to TSI1 to prevent high memory issues later on (6-12 months later if you don’t have enough memory (RAM))

Run

echo “deb https://repos.influxdata.com/ubuntu focal stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

sudo curl -sL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install influxdb

Then modify the influxdb config

sudo nano /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf

Find and replace

index-version = “inmem”

with

index-version = “tsi1”

If you are going to open ports on your firewall for the AutoPi to record the metrics, I strongly suggest enabling Authentication on InfluxDB. A user and password must be set, and then enforce it in influxdb.conf

Launch Influx

influx

Then create the user with

CREATE USER admin WITH PASSWORD choosepasswordhere WITH ALL PRIVILEGES

2. Install Grafana
   Install some plugins

Gauge

sudo grafana-cli plugins install briangann-gauge-panel

Worldmap

sudo grafana-cli plugins install grafana-worldmap-panel

Or the pr0ps-trackmap

sudo grafana-cli plugins install pr0ps-trackmap-panel

Influx should now be running on port 8086, and Grafana on port 3000
I have a Cloudflare Argo Tunnel connecting my influxdb and Grafana to the outside world, that way Cloudflare can offer some protection without having to open any ports, but its about $5 each month. using a domain name for the influxdb server would be best (dyndns, Cloudflare etc.)

On the AutoPi

Enable the mosquito server via the autopi cloud under MQTT
Enable the MQTT returner tick box

Enable MQTT as an additional returner for each of the loggers under car explorer

Enable SSH via the cloud, connect directly to it via SSH then;

Install telegraf

curl -sL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo apt-key add -

echo “deb https://repos.influxdata.com/debian buster stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install telegraf

Modify the telegraf configuration

sudo nano /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf

Configure the telegraf agent, I have mine set to:

interval=“10s”
metric_batch_size = 100000
metric_buffer_limit = 100000

set the output plugin to use influxdb
I have mine set to:

[[outputs.influxdb]]
urls = [“https://influxdb.mylocaldomainname.com.au”]
database = “autopi”
username = “admin”
password = “newlycreatedpassword”

configure telegraf to connect to the autopi mosquito service (this part in the Telegraf.conf is almost at the bottom, it will take some time to find it (quite some time when using nano…)

I have mine set to subscribe to all topics

[[inputs.mqtt_consumer]]
servers = [“tcp://localhost:1883”]
topics = [
“#”,
]
data_format = “json”

restart the telegraf service

sudo service telegraf restart

Configure datasources in Grafana

you use the Grafana explorer and check your metrics are being posted to influx

Create a dashboard, I have set variables for OBD metrics, that way any new loggers created in the cloud will automatically be shown in the dashboard. I have a dashboard for analysis and another simple one for show (might set this up as an in car dashboard later)

simple dash

analysis dash

using the variables within the Grafana queries

using the track map to draw lines on the map, I have mine limited to only a few of the last coordinates