[[slm-api-start]]
=== Start {slm} API

[subs="attributes"]
++++
<titleabbrev>Start {slm}</titleabbrev>
++++

Turns on {slm} ({slm-init}).

[[slm-api-start-request]]
==== {api-request-title}

`POST /_slm/start`

[[slm-api-start-prereqs]]
==== {api-prereq-title}

If the {es} {security-features} are enabled, you must have the `manage_slm`
cluster privilege to use this API. For more information, see
<<security-privileges>>.

[[slm-api-start-desc]]
==== {api-description-title}

Starts the {slm-init} plugin if it's not running. 
{slm-init} starts automatically when a cluster is formed. 
Manually starting {slm-init} is only necessary if it has been stopped using the <<slm-api-stop>>.

==== {api-query-parms-title}

include::{es-repo-dir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=timeoutparms]

[[slm-api-start-example]]
==== {api-examples-title}

Start the {slm-init} plugin:

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _slm/start
--------------------------------------------------

If successful, this request returns:

[source,console-result]
--------------------------------------------------
{
  "acknowledged": true
}
--------------------------------------------------