diff --git a/.buildkite/pipelines/performance/daily.yml b/.buildkite/pipelines/performance/daily.yml
index ea7e406ba63d8..a37dedfd98235 100644
--- a/.buildkite/pipelines/performance/daily.yml
+++ b/.buildkite/pipelines/performance/daily.yml
@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ steps:
         - exit_status: '*'
           limit: 1
 
-  - label: '🚢 Performance Tests dataset extraction for scalability benchmarking'
-    command: .buildkite/scripts/steps/functional/scalability_dataset_extraction.sh
-    agents:
-      queue: n2-2
-    depends_on: tests
+  # - label: '🚢 Performance Tests dataset extraction for scalability benchmarking'
+  #   command: .buildkite/scripts/steps/functional/scalability_dataset_extraction.sh
+  #   agents:
+  #     queue: n2-2
+  #   depends_on: tests
 
   - label: '📈 Report performance metrics to ci-stats'
     command: .buildkite/scripts/steps/functional/report_performance_metrics.sh
diff --git a/packages/kbn-journeys/journey/journey_ftr_harness.ts b/packages/kbn-journeys/journey/journey_ftr_harness.ts
index 7b9d8cc0266fc..6bf9fea87fcfa 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-journeys/journey/journey_ftr_harness.ts
+++ b/packages/kbn-journeys/journey/journey_ftr_harness.ts
@@ -117,15 +117,21 @@ export class JourneyFtrHarness {
   }
 
   private async onSetup() {
-    await Promise.all([
-      this.setupBrowserAndPage(),
-      asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getEsArchives(), async (esArchive) => {
-        await this.esArchiver.load(esArchive);
-      }),
-      asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getKbnArchives(), async (kbnArchive) => {
-        await this.kibanaServer.importExport.load(kbnArchive);
-      }),
-    ]);
+    await this.setupBrowserAndPage();
+
+    if (
+      process.env.TEST_PERFORMANCE_PHASE === 'WARMUP' ||
+      process.env.TEST_PERFORMANCE_PHASE === undefined
+    ) {
+      await Promise.all([
+        asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getEsArchives(), async (esArchive) => {
+          await this.esArchiver.load(esArchive);
+        }),
+        asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getKbnArchives(), async (kbnArchive) => {
+          await this.kibanaServer.importExport.load(kbnArchive);
+        }),
+      ]);
+    }
 
     // It is important that we start the APM transaction after we open the browser and all the test data is loaded
     // so that the scalability data extractor can focus on just the APM data produced by Kibana running under test.
@@ -189,14 +195,19 @@ export class JourneyFtrHarness {
     // unloading the test data so that the scalability data extractor can focus on just the APM data produced
     // by Kibana running under test.
     await this.teardownApm();
-    await Promise.all([
-      asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getEsArchives(), async (esArchive) => {
+
+    if (
+      process.env.TEST_PERFORMANCE_PHASE === 'TEST' ||
+      process.env.TEST_PERFORMANCE_PHASE === undefined
+    ) {
+      // unload data
+      await asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getEsArchives(), async (esArchive) => {
         await this.esArchiver.unload(esArchive);
-      }),
-      asyncForEach(this.journeyConfig.getKbnArchives(), async (kbnArchive) => {
-        await this.kibanaServer.importExport.unload(kbnArchive);
-      }),
-    ]);
+      });
+      // empty the kibana index
+      await this.esArchiver.emptyKibanaIndex();
+      // TODO: delete the kibana index \ clean mappings?
+    }
   }
 
   private async onStepSuccess(step: AnyStep) {
diff --git a/src/dev/performance/run_performance_cli.ts b/src/dev/performance/run_performance_cli.ts
index ac0e708dcee0a..e63c744686b51 100644
--- a/src/dev/performance/run_performance_cli.ts
+++ b/src/dev/performance/run_performance_cli.ts
@@ -84,10 +84,10 @@ run(
     log.info(`Found ${journeys.length} journeys to run`);
 
     const failedJourneys = [];
+    await startEs();
 
     for (const journey of journeys) {
       try {
-        await startEs();
         await runWarmup(journey);
         await runTest(journey);
       } catch (e) {
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ run(
       }
     }
 
+    await procRunner.stop('es');
+
     if (failedJourneys.length > 0) {
       throw new Error(`${failedJourneys.length} journeys failed: ${failedJourneys.join(',')}`);
     }