This document provides an overview of consuming, extracting, storing, and visualizing data from a RESTful API with InfluxDB and Grafana. It introduces RESTful APIs and their components, then details how to make requests using HTTP methods. Next, it covers using Bash shell scripts with JQ to parse JSON responses and send data to InfluxDB for storage. Finally, it demonstrates how to build dashboards in Grafana to visualize time series data from InfluxDB for monitoring and analytics.

1. Jorge de la Cruz
@jorgedlcruz
https://jorgedelacruz.es || https://jorgedelacruz.uk
RESTful API – How to
Consume, Extract, Store,
and Visualize Data with
InfluxDB and Grafana

2. What are we
going to learn?
• Introduction and Quick Overview of a
RESTful API
• Components and diagram of the How-To
• Deep-dive in Swagger
• Deep-dive on Bash Shell and JQ
• Deep-Dive on InfluxDB 1.x Queries, using
Grafana as a Dashboard system

3. THE PROBLEMS
I’VE SOLVED
BY CHOOSING
TIME SERIES

4. From zero to time-series
Introduction and Quick Overview of a RESTful API

5. Application Programming Interface
What is an API?
Think of an API as a waitress, you have a menu and
you select some food, the waitress takes that order
to the kitchen, who prepares the food, and the
waitress delivers the order to your table
Request
ResponseYou Server
API

6. A World without an API

7. A World with an API

8. • REpresentational State Transfer (REST)
• Architectural style based on web standards and the HTTP protocol
• Everything is a resource
• CRUD or HTTP methods
Server-client model
What is a REST API?

9. GET
Most popular protocol used for RESTful implementations is HTTP
REST architecture uses HTML verbs to make requests
Uniquely address data using a uniform and minimal set of
commands
HTTP Methods
POST
DELETE
PUT
Read data or resources
Create data or resources
Delete data or resources
Update data or resources

10. HTTP response status code
Informational Codes
Redirection Codes
Server Error Codes
Successful Codes
Client Error Codes

11. Use existing tools:
• POSTMAN (Google Chrome)
• RESTClient (Mozilla Firefox)
• Swagger (when available)
• CURL (for the command-line geek)
Talking with an API

12. Comprehend visually what’s what
Components and diagram of the How-To

13. InfluxDB Server
Database Server to save metrics
Bash Shell Script.sh
Bash Script to collect data
COLLECTOR VISUALIZATION
From RESTful API, to InfluxDB, to Visual

14. Not always available, but when it is, the best resource
Deep-dive in Swagger

15. Obtaining our first JSON to parse

16. id=96965f6a-6f09-4286-a47c-1346c8631d99
Obtaining our first JSON to parse
objectStorageId=07c58531-19b5-42a9-8051-5a2137bf7731
objectStoragCachePath=E:REPO002
capacityBytes=107370971136
freeSpaceBytes=100837818368
name=NTFS-REPO-1Y

17. The “sed” for JSON Data, parsing like a Pro
Deep-dive on Bash Shell and JQ

18. Parsing a JSON to useful data with JQ
Jqplay.org
jq '.[] | .objectStorageId,.objectStorageCachePath,.capacityBytes,.freeSpaceBytes,.id,.name'

19. Putting all of this on Bash Shell Script

20. Putting all of this on Bash Shell Script

21. How to quickly build gorgeous, yet useful, Dashboards
Deep-Dive on InfluxDB 1.x Queries, using Grafana

22. Grafana – Quick Overview I

23. Grafana – Quick Overview II

24. Grafana – Dashboard Variables

25. Grafana – Dashboard Variables

26. Grafana – Veeam Backup for Azure

27. Grafana – Veeam Backup for MS365

28. Grafana – Veeam Enterprise Manager

29. Grafana – Veeam Enterprise Manager

30. Grafana – JSON API Plugin
A non-production ready yet, awesome plugin
By Marcus Olsson
A great way to query, and parse a JSON on the fly, and show it on Grafana:
• https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/marcusolsson-json-datasource

31. THANK YOU