TL;DR InfluxDB Tech Tips: Debugging and Monitoring Tasks with InfluxDB

With InfluxDB you can use Tasks to process data on a schedule. You can also use tasks to write custom alerts. However, sometimes your task will fail. In this TLDR, we’ll learn how to debug your task with the InfluxDB UI and the InfluxDB CLI.

Debugging tasks with the InfluxDB UI

The InfluxDB UI is full of information about your tasks to help you understand more about the tasks you’re running.

Here are some of the UI features of the Task page you should familiarize yourself with:

• Task run status toggle: It enables you to toggle a Task on/off or active/inactive. I toggle my tasks to inactive when I am debugging a failing task. I also use this feature when I’m testing a new Task. Specifically, I’ll temporarily set my task to run very frequently to make sure it can pass whatever tests I throw at it. Then I’ll set the task to inactive while I make final changes to my task. Finally, I’ll turn it back to active when I’m confident with how my final task looks.
• The gear icon: This is probably the most important UI feature for debugging your tasks. It allows you to Export your task, View Task Runs, and Run Task.
• Export button: The Export button in the dropdown under the gear icon allows…