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Synopsis

Pauses a running virtual cluster to save resources. 
vcluster pause VCLUSTER_NAME [flags]

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Description

The pause command puts a virtual cluster into sleep mode, scaling down control plane components to save CPU and memory. This is useful for development and staging environments that don’t need to run 24/7.

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Examples

# Pause a vCluster
vcluster pause my-vcluster --namespace team-x

# Pause with specific driver
vcluster pause my-vcluster -n team-x --driver helm

# Pause without preventing wake-up (Platform only)
vcluster pause my-vcluster -n team-x --prevent-wakeup=false

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Flags

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--namespace
string
required
The Kubernetes namespace where the vCluster is running.
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--driver
string
default:"helm"
The driver to use. Options: helm, platform.
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--prevent-wakeup
boolean
default:"true"
[PLATFORM] Prevent automatic wakeup.
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--project
string
[PLATFORM] The project name.

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How It Works

When you pause a vCluster:
  1. Control plane scales down - StatefulSet replicas set to 0
  2. Workloads remain - Synced pods continue running in host cluster
  3. State preserved - etcd/database data persists
  4. Resources freed - CPU and memory released
Paused vClusters cannot be accessed via kubectl. You must resume them first.

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Complete Example

# Check current status
vcluster list

# Pause the vCluster
vcluster pause dev-vcluster -n development

# Verify it's paused
vcluster list
# Should show Status: Paused

# Later, resume it
vcluster resume dev-vcluster -n development

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See Also

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