Project: Vector (Observability and Analysis / Observability)
File: management.md

title: Management description: How to start, stop, reload, and restart your Vector instance short: Management weight: 1 tags: ["process", "admin", "reload", "start", "stop", "restart"] The sections below show you how to administer your Vector instancestart, stop, reload, etc.in a variety of settings: (no process manager) (systemctl process manager) (Homebrew service manager) To manage the Vector executable directly, without a process manager: {{< tabs default="Start" >}} {{< tab title="Start" >}} ```bash vector --config /etc/vector/vector.yaml ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Reload" >}} ```bash killall -s SIGHUP vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} If you've installed Vector using [APT], [dpkg], [RPM], [YUM] or [pacman], you can manage it using [systemctl]. {{< tabs default="Start" >}} {{< tab title="Start" >}} ```bash sudo systemctl start vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Stop" >}} ```bash sudo systemctl stop vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Reload" >}} ```bash systemctl kill -s HUP --kill-who=main vector.service ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Restart" >}} ```bash sudo systemctl restart vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} If you've installed Vector using [Nix], you can manage it using the commands laid out in the [Vector executable](#vector-executable) section. If you're running Vector on macOS, you can manage it using either the commands or . If you've installed Vector using utility. {{< tabs default="Start" >}} {{< tab title="Start" >}} ```bash brew services start vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Stop" >}} ```bash brew services stop vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Reload" >}} ```bash killall -S SIGHUP vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Restart" >}} ```bash brew services restart vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} If you're running Vector on Windows (perhaps you installed it using [MSI]), you can manage it using these commands: {{< tabs default="Start" >}} {{< tab title="Start" >}} ```powershell C:\Program Files\Vector\bin\vector \ --config C:\Program

``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} If you're running Vector using [Docker], the command interface is the same across all platforms. {{< tabs default="Start" >}} {{< tab title="Start" >}} ```bash docker run \ -d \ -v ~/vector.yaml:/etc/vector/vector.yaml:ro \ -p 8686:8686 \ timberio/vector:{{< version >}}-alpine ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Stop" >}} ```bash docker stop timberio/vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Reload" >}} ```bash docker kill --signal=HUP timberio/vector ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Restart" >}} ```bash docker restart -f $(docker ps -aqf "name=vector") ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} The commands above involve configuring Vector using TOML, but you can also use JSON or YAML. You can also use one of three image variants (the commands assume `alpine`): Variant | Image basis :-|:-- `alpine` | , a Linux distro built around and `debian` | The image, which is a smaller and more compact version of the standard `debian` image `distroless` | The project, which provides extremely lean images with no package managers, shells, or other inessential utilities To get Vector running on [Kubernetes] using the [Helm] package manager: {{< jump "/docs/setup/installation/package-managers/helm" >}} Once Vector is running in Kubernetes, you can manage it using [kubectl]: {{< tabs default="Restart Agent" >}} {{< tab title="Restart Agent" >}} ```shell kubectl rollout restart --namespace vector daemonset/vector-agent ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< tab title="Restart Aggregator" >}} ```shell kubectl rollout restart --namespace vector statefulset/vector-aggregator ``` {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}} As you can see above, many administrative interfaces for Vector enable you to trigger a restart of a Vector instance while it's running. There are a few things that you should know about reloading. You can make Vector automatically reload itself when its changes by setting the `--watch-config` or `-w` when you first start your Vector instance. Running Vector instances accept the IPC and produce the listed below. {{< administration/process >}}