[Yandex Cloud documentation](../../../index.md) > [Yandex Compute Cloud](../../index.md) > [Step-by-step guides](../index.md) > Managing an instance group > Starting an instance group

# Starting an instance group

Starting an instance group will automatically start all stopped VM instances within that group. You can start a single VM instance, e.g., for diagnostics, but to enable [automatic recovery](../../concepts/instance-groups/autohealing.md) or [scaling](../../concepts/instance-groups/scale.md), you need to start the entire group.

{% note warning %}

If Yandex Cloud stops an instance group due to a block for non-payment, that instance group can only be restarted after the block is removed.

{% endnote %}

{% list tabs group=instructions %}

- Management console {#console}

  1. In the [management console](https://console.yandex.cloud), open the folder containing the instance group in question.
  1. Navigate to **Compute Cloud**.
  1. In the left-hand panel, select ![image](../../../_assets/console-icons/layers-3-diagonal.svg) **Instance groups**.
  1. In the line with the instance group, click ![image](../../../_assets/console-icons/ellipsis.svg) and select **Start group**.
  1. In the window that opens, click **Start**.

- CLI {#cli}

  If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, [install and initialize it](../../../cli/quickstart.md#install).

  The folder used by default is the one specified when [creating](../../../cli/operations/profile/profile-create.md) the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the `yc config set folder-id <folder_ID>` command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using `--folder-name` or `--folder-id`. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

  1. See the description of the CLI command for starting an instance group:

     ```bash
     yc compute instance-group start --help
     ```

  1. Get a list of instance groups in the default folder:

     ```bash
     yc compute instance-group list
     ```
     
     Result:
     
     ```text
     +----------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
     |          ID          |          NAME        | STATUS | SIZE |
     +----------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
     | cl15b3mrkk88******** | first-instance-group | ACTIVE |    3 |
     +----------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
     ```

  1. Select `ID` or `NAME` of the group in question, e.g., `first-instance-group`.
  1. Start the instance group in the default folder:

     ```bash
     yc compute instance-group start first-instance-group
     ```

     Instance Groups will initiate starting VM instances in the group. Once all instances are started, the group will get the `ACTIVE` status.

- API {#api}

  To start an instance group, use the [start](../../instancegroup/api-ref/InstanceGroup/start.md) REST API method for the [InstanceGroup](../../instancegroup/api-ref/InstanceGroup/index.md) resource or the [InstanceGroupService/Start](../../instancegroup/api-ref/grpc/InstanceGroup/start.md) gRPC API call.

  To request a list of available instance groups, use the [listInstances](../../instancegroup/api-ref/InstanceGroup/listInstances.md) REST API method or the [InstanceGroupService/ListInstances](../../instancegroup/api-ref/grpc/InstanceGroup/listInstances.md) gRPC API call.

{% endlist %}