start-stop.asciidoc

Start and stop {ilm}

By default, the {ilm-init} service is in the RUNNING state and manages all indices that have lifecycle policies.

You can stop {ilm} to suspend management operations for all indices. For example, you might stop {ilm} when performing scheduled maintenance or making changes to the cluster that could impact the execution of {ilm-init} actions.

Important

When you stop {ilm-init}, {slm-init} operations are also suspended. No snapshots will be taken as scheduled until you restart {ilm-init}. In-progress snapshots are not affected.

Get {ilm-init} status

To see the current status of the {ilm-init} service, use the Get Status API:

GET _ilm/status

Under normal operation, the response shows {ilm-init} is RUNNING:

{
  "operation_mode": "RUNNING"
}

Stop {ilm-init}

To stop the {ilm-init} service and pause execution of all lifecycle policies, use the Stop API:

POST _ilm/stop

{ilm-init} service runs all policies to a point where it is safe to stop. While the {ilm-init} service is shutting down, the status API shows {ilm-init} is in the STOPPING mode:

{
  "operation_mode": "STOPPING"
}

Once all policies are at a safe stopping point, {ilm-init} moves into the STOPPED mode:

{
  "operation_mode": "STOPPED"
}

Start {ilm-init}

To restart {ilm-init} and resume executing policies, use the Start API. This puts the {ilm-init} service in the RUNNING state and {ilm-init} begins executing policies from where it left off.

POST _ilm/start