Process Management

This document covers how to manage the Vector process using various interfaces. How you manage the Vector process is largely dependent on how you installed Vector.

Starting

Command

How did you install Vector?

Flags

Flag	Description
Required
-c, --config <path>	Path the Vector configuration file.
Optional
-q, --quiet	Raises the log level to warn.
-qq	Raises the log level to error.
-qqq	Turns logging off.
-r, --require-healthy	Causes vector to immediately exit if any sinks fail their healthchecks.
-t, --threads	Limits the number of internal threads Vector can spawn.
-v, --verbose	Drops the log level to debug.
-vv	Drops the log level to trace, the lowest level possible.
-w, --watch-config	Vector will watch for changes in configuration file, and reload accordingly. (Mac/Linux only)

Daemonizing

Vector does not directly offer a way to daemonize the Vector process. We highly recommend that you use a utility like Systemd to daemonize and manage your processes. Vector provides a vector.service file for Systemd.

Stopping

The Vector process can be stopped by sending it a SIGTERM process signal.

Command

How did you install Vector?

Graceful Shutdown

Vector is designed to gracefully shutdown within 20 seconds when a SIGTERM process signal is received. The shutdown process is as follows:

1. Stop accepting new data for all sources.
2. Gracefully close any open connections with a 20 second timeout.
3. Flush any sink buffers with a 20 second timeout.
4. Exit the process with a 1 exit code.

Force Killing

If Vector is forcefully killed there is the potential to lose in-flight data. To mitigate this we recommend enabling on-disk buffers and avoiding forceful shutdowns whenever possible.

Exit Codes

If Vector fails to start it will exit with one of the preferred exit codes as defined by sysexits.h. A full list of exit codes can be found in the exitcodes Rust crate. The relevant codes that Vector uses are:

Code	Description
0	No error.
78	Bad configuration.

Reloading

Vector can be reloaded, on the fly, to recognize any configuration changes by sending the Vector process a SIGHUP signal.

Command

How did you install Vector?

Automatic Reload On Changes

You can automatically reload Vector's configuration file when it changes by using the -w or --watch-config flag when starting Vector. This is particularly helpful in scenarios where configuration is managed for you, such as Kubernetes.

Configuration Errors

When Vector is reloaded it proceeds to read the new configuration file from disk. If the file has errors it will be logged to STDOUT and ignored, preserving any previous configuration that was set. If the process exits you will not be able to restart the process since it will try to use the new, invalid, configuration file.

Graceful Pipeline Transitioning

Vector will perform a diff between the new and old configuration, determining which sinks and sources should be started and shutdown and ensures the transition from the old to new pipeline is graceful.