What is the difference between temporarily disabling a vService and deleting it?

Short answer

Disable keeps the configuration of the vService as it is and only stops it from running; the vService does not accept new connections, appears gray in the list and comes back with Enable without its settings being lost, and no confirmation is requested. Delete removes the record permanently, requests confirmation and cannot be undone; the monitoring screens and record views of the vService are also removed. In both cases, the frontend IP address remains defined on the device and continues to respond on the network; to turn off the IP, the IP is right-clicked on the Network → Interfaces screen and disabled with Disable for. The Backend Service, profile, action and condition records linked to the vService are not deleted.

How Does It Work?

1. Disable sets the status of the vService to off: the record and all the settings are kept, the ports of the vService stop listening and new connections are not accepted. The status circle in the list becomes gray (Disabled).
2. Enable runs the same record again; the vService comes back together with its settings.
3. Delete first asks for confirmation; once confirmed, it removes the vService record and its running instance. The Dashboard, Live Stats and Logs & Tracking screens of the deleted vService also disappear.
4. The frontend IP address is a part not of the vService but of the interface on the Network → Interfaces screen; Disable or Delete does not remove it.
5. In a cluster setup, Disable, Enable and Delete are transferred to the peer device immediately with the default automatic synchronization; if Manual Sync Mode is on, they apply only on the device where the operation was performed until they are sent with Synchronize.

Comparison

	Disable	Delete
Configuration	Kept	Removed permanently
Confirmation	Not requested	Requested
Way back	Enable	None; the vService is created again or restored from a backup
Traffic	New connections are not accepted	The vService does not exist
Frontend IP address	Remains defined on the device, responds on the network	Remains defined on the device, responds on the network
Linked Backend Service, profile, action, condition	Not touched	Not touched; those not used anywhere appear in the Unused Entries filter
Monitoring and record screens	Remain	Removed
Reload in the right-click menu	Inactive	-

Turning Off the Frontend IP Address

When the vService is disabled or deleted, the IP address remains active on the interface; the address responds to network requests such as ping, and only the ports of the vService are closed (Disable). If the address is to be removed from the network completely, the IP is turned off separately:

1. On the Network → Interfaces screen, the IP address is right-clicked (Right-Clicking an IP Address).
2. For a reversible turn-off, Disable for (it appears together with the device name) is selected; the IP remains defined but is not applied to the system, appears gray and struck through in the list, and is turned back on with Enable for in the same menu (IP Status). If the address will not be used again, it is deleted with Delete IP; deletion requests confirmation.
3. In a cluster setup, the menu has separate Disable for rows for the two devices; for the address to be turned off on both devices, both are applied. Delete IP deletes the address from both devices at once (Cluster · Right-Clicking an IP Address).

Before this operation, whether another vService uses the same IP is checked from the IP column in the vService list or from the IP card in the Filter panel: when the IP is turned off, none of the vServices that listen on that address can receive traffic on this address; if all the frontend IPs of a vService are off, the vService appears gray (Disabled). The IPs used in the management access of the device (HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, SNMP) are protected; they cannot be disabled and cannot be deleted.

Disable and Delete in TR7

• The operations are performed with the Enable, Disable and Delete buttons on the Load Balancer → Load Balancer vService List screen, from the row's right-click menu or from the ⋮ menu of the panel on the vService screen; the list buttons are applied to multiple vServices at the same time (Can I enable, disable or delete multiple vServices at the same time?).
• A vService can also be created as disabled from the start (What does creating a vService in the Disabled state mean, and when is it used?).
• A deleted vService cannot be recovered; it is either created again or restored from a backup. Restoring from a backup returns not only that vService but the entire configuration to the moment the backup was taken (Can I back up and restore the configuration?).
• In WEB-CLI, disabling and deleting are done with the following commands; the vService name is listed with Tab:

lb service update id <vService> --active false
lb service delete <vService>

Common Misconceptions

• "Disable also turns off the IP address." The IP address stays on the device; only the ports of the vService are closed. To turn off the IP, the steps in the Turning off the frontend IP address section are applied.
• "Delete also deletes the linked Backend Services and profiles." These records are separate objects and are not deleted (How do I find Backend Services that are not used anywhere (Unused Entries)?).
• "Disable requests confirmation, so it is not done by mistake." Disable is applied without asking for confirmation; the selection is made carefully.
• "After Disable, the settings are reset." The settings are kept; with Enable, the same configuration comes back.

How it is done in the documentation

• vService · Disable
• vService · Delete
• vService · Enable
• Interfaces List · Right-Clicking an IP Address

Related questions

• What does creating a vService in the Disabled state mean, and when is it used?
• What does Reload in the right-click menu do; how is it different from Disable / Enable?
• Can I enable, disable or delete multiple vServices at the same time?