---
title: Restart Fleet-managed Elastic Agents
description: Remotely restart Fleet-managed Elastic Agents from Kibana or the Fleet API, individually or in bulk, and track the restart progress in the agent activity log.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/restart-elastic-agent
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Elastic Documentation
  - Fleet
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview
  - Elastic Stack: Planned
---

# Restart Fleet-managed Elastic Agents
Restart the Elastic Agent process on one or more hosts directly from Fleet, without logging in to each host. A restart can resolve common problems, for example when an agent stops sending data.
You can also restart agents programmatically, using the `POST /api/fleet/agents/{agentId}/restart` endpoint for a single agent or the `POST /api/fleet/agents/bulk_restart` endpoint for multiple agents. For the endpoint specifications, refer to the [Kibana API docs](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/kibana/). For Elastic Cloud Serverless projects, use the [Kibana Serverless API docs](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/serverless/).
To restart the Elastic Agent service locally on the host instead, refer to [Start and stop Elastic Agents on edge hosts](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/start-stop-elastic-agent).

## Before you begin

- You need `All` access for **Agents** in Fleet. Refer to [Fleet roles and privileges](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/fleet-roles-privileges).
- The agents must be on version 9.6.0 or later. For agents on earlier versions, the restart action is unavailable.
- The agents must be enrolled in Fleet. You can't restart unenrolled or inactive agents.
- You can't restart agents that are enrolled in a [hosted agent policy](/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/agent-policy#agent-policy-types), because these agents are managed by an external orchestration solution, such as Elastic Cloud or Kubernetes. To restart them, use your orchestration solution.


## Restart a single agent

To restart the Elastic Agent running on a specific host:
1. In Kibana, find **Fleet** in the navigation menu or use the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects), then select **Agents**.
2. From the **Actions** menu next to the agent, select **Restart agent**. The action is also available in the **Actions** menu on the agent details page.
3. In the confirmation window, click **Restart agent**.

Fleet sends the restart action to the agent, and the Elastic Agent process on the host restarts. To verify the result, [track the restart progress](#restart-elastic-agent-track).

## Restart multiple agents

To restart a group of agents in a single action:
1. In Kibana, find **Fleet** in the navigation menu or use the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects), then select **Agents**.
2. Select the agents you want to restart.
3. Select **Actions** → **Restart _x_ agents**.
4. In the confirmation window, click **Restart agents**.

Fleet restarts all eligible agents in your selection. Agents that can't be restarted, for example because they're on a version earlier than 9.6.0, are excluded from the action and receive individual error results. To verify the results, [track the restart progress](#restart-elastic-agent-track).

## Track the restart progress

To follow the progress of the restart, click **Agent activity** on the **Agents** tab. For more information, refer to [View agent activity](/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/monitor-elastic-agent#view-agent-activity). The activity log shows the restart action, when it completed, and any agents that couldn't be restarted. If any agents failed to restart, select **Show errors** to view the error message for each agent.
If an agent is offline when you issue the restart, it receives the action the next time it checks in with Fleet.

## Related pages

- [Elastic Agents](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/manage-agents)
- [Start and stop Elastic Agents on edge hosts](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/start-stop-elastic-agent)
- [Elastic Agent health status](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/agent-health-status)
- [Fleet roles and privileges](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/8402/reference/fleet/fleet-roles-privileges)