diff --git a/tests/antithesis/harness/src/bin/eventually_conservation.rs b/tests/antithesis/harness/src/bin/eventually_conservation.rs
index 947d6d9372d2a..452a1ef898458 100644
--- a/tests/antithesis/harness/src/bin/eventually_conservation.rs
+++ b/tests/antithesis/harness/src/bin/eventually_conservation.rs
@@ -226,7 +226,14 @@ async fn main() {
     // post retry until one sticks, since a node can briefly refuse a write while it is
     // still recovering. A wedged node never delivers it and fails here. Runs
     // unconditionally.
-    let deadline = time::Instant::now() + time::Duration::from_secs(45);
+    //
+    // The recovery gate above only proves the metrics endpoint answers. That is a
+    // separate listener from the source's data path, so the source and sink can still
+    // be unready while metrics already serve, and a just-restarted node needs time to
+    // bring them up. The round-trip is therefore the real readiness signal and gets the
+    // same budget as recovery rather than a tight window that expires before the data
+    // path is serving.
+    let deadline = time::Instant::now() + time::Duration::from_secs(180);
     let mut probe = None;
     let mut progressed = false;
     while !progressed && time::Instant::now() < deadline {
diff --git a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/Dockerfile b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/Dockerfile
index 350fc48a9e165..7f2d0e21b170f 100644
--- a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/Dockerfile
+++ b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/Dockerfile
@@ -76,13 +76,8 @@ FROM debian:stable-slim AS vector
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl ca-certificates \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 COPY --from=vector-build /usr/local/bin/vector /usr/bin/vector
-# Bake the node config plus its benign alternate, which the reload fault swaps in
-# to force a sink rebuild.
+# Bake the node config; compose selects it via --config.
 COPY tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/vector.yaml /etc/vector/vector.yaml
-COPY tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/vector.b.yaml /etc/vector/vector.b.yaml
-# The reload fault is an anytime_ test command that runs IN the node container.
-# The node stays running because its entrypoint is Vector, not a test command.
-COPY --chmod=755 tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/anytime_reload.sh /opt/antithesis/test/v1/ve2e/anytime_reload
 RUN mkdir -p /symbols && ln -s /usr/bin/vector /symbols/vector
 ENV NO_COLOR=1
 EXPOSE 8080 9598
diff --git a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/README.md b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/README.md
index 4448e918b7e94..4aabdc33a01b3 100644
--- a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/README.md
+++ b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/README.md
@@ -26,9 +26,7 @@ One Vector node and one oracle container.
 
 - **vector** takes an `http_server` source (`:8080`) and delivers over `http` to
   the oracle through an in-memory buffer with `when_full: block` and e2e acks. It
-  also exposes Prometheus metrics (`:9598`) for the health gate, and runs the
-  reload fault: an `anytime_` command swaps `vector.yaml`/`vector.b.yaml` and sends
-  `SIGHUP`, forcing the sink to rebuild mid-run.
+  also exposes Prometheus metrics (`:9598`) for the health gate.
 - **oracle** (`:8686`) is one container that injects unique event ids at the node
   and runs the HTTP endpoint the node's sink delivers back to.
 
diff --git a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/anytime_reload.sh b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/anytime_reload.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 71416aaf9324b..0000000000000
--- a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/anytime_reload.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-
-set -euo pipefail
-[ -n "${VECTOR_CONFIG_ALT:-}" ] || exit 0
-cfg="${VECTOR_CONFIG:?}"
-alt="${VECTOR_CONFIG_ALT:?}"
-
-# Vector only ever reads $cfg, so reload alternates $cfg between two immutable
-# sources rather than swapping two live files. The alternate $alt is never
-# written, and the baseline (the original $cfg) is snapshotted once, so the only
-# mutable file is $cfg and the only writes to it are a single rename of a fully
-# written temp. The node-termination fault can therefore interrupt this script at
-# any point and leave $cfg as one complete config or the other, never half-written
-# and never collapsed so both sources hold the same content. Alternation always
-# resumes on the next invocation.
-base="$cfg.orig"
-if [ ! -f "$base" ]; then
-    cp "$cfg" "$base.tmp"
-    mv "$base.tmp" "$base"
-fi
-
-# Pick whichever source is not currently live. cksum reads from stdin so its
-# output is the checksum alone, with no filename to differ on.
-if [ "$(cksum <"$cfg")" = "$(cksum <"$alt")" ]; then
-    next="$base"
-else
-    next="$alt"
-fi
-cp "$next" "$cfg.tmp"
-mv "$cfg.tmp" "$cfg"
-
-# Vector is PID 1 in the node container. SIGHUP triggers reload-from-disk.
-kill -HUP 1
-sleep 5
diff --git a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/docker-compose.yaml b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/docker-compose.yaml
index abbc3a136b36d..f18a794ad251a 100644
--- a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -21,12 +21,8 @@ services:
     build: *vector-build
     image: ve2e-vector:${ANTITHESIS_IMAGE_TAG:-dev}
     entrypoint: ["/usr/bin/vector", "--config", "/etc/vector/vector.yaml"]
-    # vector runs the reload fault: VECTOR_CONFIG_ALT lets anytime_reload swap
-    # configs and SIGHUP, forcing the sink to rebuild. No disk buffer, so no volume.
     environment:
       NO_COLOR: "1"
-      VECTOR_CONFIG: "/etc/vector/vector.yaml"
-      VECTOR_CONFIG_ALT: "/etc/vector/vector.b.yaml"
     healthcheck: *node-health
 
   oracle:
diff --git a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/vector.b.yaml b/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/vector.b.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index d426c7413699a..0000000000000
--- a/tests/antithesis/scenarios/vector_e2e/vector.b.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,36 +0,0 @@
-sources:
-  in:
-    type: http_server
-    address: 0.0.0.0:8080
-    decoding:
-      codec: json
-    acknowledgements:
-      enabled: true
-
-  metrics:
-    type: internal_metrics
-    scrape_interval_secs: 1
-
-sinks:
-  out:
-    type: http
-    inputs: [in]
-    uri: http://oracle:8686/ingest
-    method: post
-    encoding:
-      codec: json
-    # Benign alternate the reload fault swaps in. It differs from vector.yaml only
-    # by an explicit request timeout, enough to make the reload rebuild the sink.
-    request:
-      timeout_secs: 45
-    buffer:
-      type: memory
-      max_events: 500
-      when_full: block
-    acknowledgements:
-      enabled: true
-
-  prom:
-    type: prometheus_exporter
-    inputs: [metrics]
-    address: 0.0.0.0:9598