VM and host states explained

The Cloud module separates what you asked for (desired state) from what's actually true right now (observed state). The colored dot on each VM shows the observed state.

Observed states:
• pending (amber) — the VM has been created but its host hasn't picked it up yet.
• provisioning (amber) — the host is materializing the disk and defining the machine.
• running (green) — the VM is up.
• stopped (grey) — the VM is defined but powered off.
• deleting (amber) — the host is tearing the VM down.
• gone (grey) — torn down; the record is being cleaned up.
• error (red) — the host hit a problem; read the message on the row for detail.

Desired vs. observed:
When you Start, Stop, or Delete a VM you change its desired state. The host-agent continuously reconciles the observed state to match. A row showing "running → stopped" means you asked it to stop and it's on the way. This gap is normal and self-healing: if a host is briefly offline, it catches up the moment it returns.

Hosts:
On the Hosts tab, "online" means the host has checked in recently; "stale" means it's gone quiet and the scheduler won't place new VMs on it until it's back.