---
title: Get started with Telegraf
description: Configure and start the Telegraf service.
aliases:
  - /telegraf/v1.15/introduction/getting_started/
menu:
  telegraf_1_21:

    name: Get started
    weight: 30
    parent: Introduction
---

Use Telegraf to collect and write metrics into InfluxDB and other supported outputs.

To get up and running, do the following:

1. [Download and install Telegraf](#download-and-install-telegraf)
2. [Configure Telegraf](#configure-telegraf)
3. [Start Telegraf service](#start-telegraf-service)

## Download and install Telegraf

Follow the instructions in the Telegraf section on the [Downloads page](https://influxdata.com/downloads/).

> **Note:** Telegraf will start automatically using the default configuration when installed from a deb package.

## Configure Telegraf

### Configuration file location by installation type

* macOS [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/): `/usr/local/etc/telegraf.conf`
* Linux debian and RPM packages: `/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf`
* Standalone Binary: see the next section for how to create a configuration file

> **Note:** You can also specify a remote URL endpoint to pull a configuration file from. See [Configuration file locations](/telegraf/v1.15/administration/configuration/#configuration-file-locations).

### Create and edit the configuration file

Before starting the Telegraf server, create or edit the initial configuration to specify your [inputs](/telegraf/v1.15/plugins/inputs/) (where the metrics come from) and [outputs](/telegraf/v1.15/plugins/outputs/) (where the metrics go). You can do this [several ways](/telegraf/v1.15/administration/configuration/).

You can use Telegraf to generate a configuration file for you, you can run the following command to get a complete sample config called `telegraf.conf` with all possible plugins.

```bash
telegraf --sample-config > telegraf.conf
```

You can simplify this config by specifying which plugins you want to use with the filter flags. For example you can specify two inputs (`cpu` and `mem`) with the `--input-filter` flag and specify InfluxDB as the output with the `--output-filter` flag.

```bash
telegraf --sample-config --input-filter cpu:mem --output-filter influxdb_v2 > telegraf.conf
```

The resulting config will have `cpu` and `mem` reading metrics about the system's cpu usage and memory usage, and then output this data to InfluxDB. Note that after running the following command, the output plugin `influxdb_v2` will still need to be configured with your url, orginization and bucket.

The resulting config file will also contain all available aggegators and processors, you can filter them out as well like so:

```bash
telegraf --sample-config --input-filter cpu:mem --output-filter influxdb_v2 --aggregator-filter : --processor-filter : > telegraf.conf
```

Learn more about the possible commands and flags in this [document](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/526dcb4bc8d7674e062492fda2c3350d7b087b64/docs/COMMANDS_AND_FLAGS.md).

## Start Telegraf service

Start the Telegraf service and direct it to the relevant configuration file or URL to pull a configuration file from a remote endpoint:

### macOS [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/)
```bash
telegraf --config telegraf.conf
```

### Linux (sysvinit and upstart installations)
```bash
sudo service telegraf start
```

### Linux (systemd installations)
```bash
systemctl start telegraf
```

## Results

Telegraf starts collecting and writing data to the specified output.

Returning to our sample configuration, we show what the `cpu` and `mem` data looks like in InfluxDB below.
Note that we used the default input and output configuration settings to get this data.

* List all [measurements](/influxdb/v1.4/concepts/glossary/#measurement) in the `telegraf` [database](/influxdb/v1.4/concepts/glossary/#database):

```
> SHOW MEASUREMENTS
name: measurements
------------------
name
cpu
mem
```

* List all [field keys](/influxdb/v1.4/concepts/glossary/#field-key) by measurement:

```
> SHOW FIELD KEYS
name: cpu
---------
fieldKey                fieldType
usage_guest             float
usage_guest_nice	       float
usage_idle		            float
usage_iowait		          float
usage_irq		             float
usage_nice		            float
usage_softirq		         float
usage_steal		           float
usage_system		          float
usage_user		            float

name: mem
---------
fieldKey                fieldType
active			               integer
available		             integer
available_percent	      float
buffered		              integer
cached			               integer
free			                 integer
inactive		              integer
total			                integer
used			                 integer
used_percent		          float
```

* Select a sample of the data in the [field](/influxdb/v1.4/concepts/glossary/#field) `usage_idle` in the measurement `cpu_usage_idle`:

```bash
> SELECT usage_idle FROM cpu WHERE cpu = 'cpu-total' LIMIT 5
name: cpu
---------
time			               usage_idle
2016-01-16T00:03:00Z	 97.56189047261816
2016-01-16T00:03:10Z	 97.76305923519121
2016-01-16T00:03:20Z	 97.32533433320835
2016-01-16T00:03:30Z	 95.68857785553611
2016-01-16T00:03:40Z	 98.63715928982245
```

Notice that the timestamps occur at rounded ten second intervals (that is, `:00`, `:10`, `:20`, and so on) - this is a configurable setting.

That's it! You ready to use Telegraf to collect metrics and write them to your output of choice.

For an introduction to Telegraf and an overview of how it works, watch the following videos:

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[Intro to Telegraf](#)
[Telegraf Plugin Overview](#)
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