InfluxDB is a powerful time-series database designed to handle high write and query loads. It is widely used for monitoring, analytics, and real-time data processing. InfluxDB excels at storing large volumes of time-stamped data, making it ideal for IoT, DevOps monitoring, and real-time analytics applications.
When working with InfluxDB, you might encounter the error message: ERR: series overflow. This error indicates that the number of series in your database has exceeded the configured limit, preventing new series from being created.
InfluxDB organizes data into series, which are unique combinations of a measurement, tag set, and field key. The series overflow error occurs when the number of unique series surpasses the limit set in the database configuration. This limit is in place to prevent excessive memory usage and ensure optimal performance.
The series overflow issue often arises in environments with high cardinality, where there are many unique combinations of tags and fields. This can happen if you have a large number of unique tag values or if your data model is not optimized for InfluxDB.
Start by reviewing your data model to ensure it is optimized for InfluxDB. Consider the following:
If optimizing the data model is not feasible or sufficient, you can increase the series limit in the InfluxDB configuration. Follow these steps:
/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf.[data] section and find the max-series-per-database setting.max-series-per-database to a higher number that suits your needs.sudo systemctl restart influxdb.Regularly monitor your series usage to prevent future overflow issues. Use the following query to check the current number of series:
SHOW SERIES CARDINALITY
This query provides the total number of series in your database, helping you track usage trends over time.
For more information on managing series and optimizing InfluxDB, refer to the following resources:
Let Dr. Droid create custom investigation plans for your infrastructure.
Start Free POC (15-min setup) →
