How to stop all running Step Functions of a specific state machine? - aws-cli

Question

I accidentally started very many step functions and now wish to terminate all of them.
Any smart ways to do this using the CLI or web console?

Answer 1

OK, let's do this using the CLI.
You can stop an execution using the following:
aws stepfunctions stop-execution \
--execution-arn <STEP FUNCTION EXECUTION ARN>
But since I started way too many executions, it's helpful to be able to list all running executions of a state machine:
aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn <STEP FUNCTION ARN> \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--output text
Next, make sure to only list execution ARN's for these executions and list each execution ARN on a separate line:
aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn <STEP FUNCTION ARN> \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" \
--output text
Now, we put this together into one command using xargs:
aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn <STEP FUNCTION ARN> \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" \
--output text | \
xargs -I {} aws stepfunctions stop-execution \
--execution-arn {}
Now all running executions should be shut down. Make sure you do this with care so that you don't mess up production!
On that note, if you user aws-vault to minimize that very risk, the command above would look something like this:
aws-vault exec test-env -- aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn <STEP FUNCTION ARN> \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" \
--output text | \
xargs -I {} aws-vault exec test-env -- aws stepfunctions stop-execution \
--execution-arn {}

Answer 2

For me xargs was giving issue because my execution-arn was quite big enough.
aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn <ARN> \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" \
--output text | \
awk '{print}' |
while read line;
do aws stepfunctions stop-execution --execution-arn $line
done
This did the trick for me. Thanks to #Pål Brattberg

Answer 3

for some reason after each iteration, it stuck in Mac,
adding >> out.t solves it
aws stepfunctions list-executions \
--state-machine-arn arn:aws:states:us-east-1:322348515048:stateMachine:workflow-dev-acknowledge-Awaiter \
--status-filter RUNNING \
--query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" \
--output text | \
xargs -I {} aws stepfunctions stop-execution \
--execution-arn {} >> out.t

Answer 4

I had 45,000 executions, so deleting using Pål Brattberg's answer was taking a long time, so I wrote a PowerShell script which will run the stop-execution command in parallel:
$ExecutionBlock = {
Param([string] $StepFunctionExecutionArn)
aws stepfunctions stop-execution --execution-arn $StepFunctionExecutionArn
}
if ($(Get-Job -state running).count -gt 1) {
Write-Host "There are $($(Get-Job -state running).count) jobs already running"
}
else {
Write-Host 'Remove all existing jobs.'
Get-Job | Remove-Job
$StateMachineArn = "<Step Function ARN>"
$StateMachineRegion = "<Step Function Region>"
Write-Host "Getting Step Function Execution ARNs for state machine with arn = '$StateMachineArn' in region = '$StateMachineRegion'."
[array]$StepFunctionExecutionArns = aws stepfunctions list-executions --state-machine-arn $StateMachineArn --status-filter RUNNING --query "executions[*].{executionArn:executionArn}" --output text --region $StateMachineRegion
$MaxThreads = 64
Write-Host "Starting the jobs. Max $MaxThreads jobs running simultaneously."
foreach($StepFunctionExecutionArn in $StepFunctionExecutionArns){
Write-Host "Starting execution of job with input '$StepFunctionExecutionArn'."
While ($(Get-Job -state running).count -ge $MaxThreads) { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 15 }
Start-Job -Scriptblock $ExecutionBlock -ArgumentList $StepFunctionExecutionArn
Write-Host "Job with input '$StepFunctionExecutionArn' started."
}
Write-Host 'Waiting for jobs to finish.'
Get-Job -state running | Wait-Job
Write-Host 'Writing information from each job.'
foreach($job in Get-Job) { Write-Host Receive-Job -Id ($job.Id) }
Write-Host "Cleaning up all jobs."
Get-Job | Remove-Job
}
To use the script, replace <Step Function ARN> and <Step Function Region> with the correct values.
My results were 5-6 times faster than serial execution. Tweaking $MaxThreads may give better results.
Notes:
You can check how many executions are still running in the web console by filtering on Running and checking the number next to Executions (may need to click the Load More button until you get all of them).
You may want to change the logging. For example, add the number of executions in the $StepFunctionExecutionArns array.