VM application status values

Use the following reference to understand the status values reported for VM applications on edge devices. The Red Hat Edge Manager agent derives VM status from Podman container events and a health probe on the compute container.

Table 1. VM application status values
Status Equivalent VM state Meaning When it appears

Preparing

N/A

The application is deployed and containers are initialized but not yet running.

Before the first start or after a container disk image change.

Starting

N/A

The application is started and at least one container is running, awaiting results.

After the application is started with flightctl app start or the UI Start action.

Running

running

The virtual machine is running and accepting workloads.

Normal operating state.

Stopping

in shutdown

The VM was stopped with flightctl app stop and is shutting down.

After the application is stopped with flightctl app stop or the UI Stop action.

Stopped

shut off

The VM was stopped with flightctl app stop and is no longer running.

After the agent reconciles the stopped state.

Completed

shut off

The VM exited cleanly.

After a graceful guest OS shutdown command.

Error

crashed, paused, or container not running

The VM failed to start or terminated with an error. Check the device events for details.

After a guest kernel panic, QEMU crash, or unexpected shutdown.

Unknown

N/A

The VM was submitted but no running state has been observed yet.

Before the agent reports an initial status for the application.

Degraded applications-summary status
Copy link

When a VM guest’s health probe reports unhealthy, the application status remains Running but the applications-summary status becomes Degraded. This is distinct from Error, which indicates that the container or QEMU process itself has stopped or crashed.

The Degraded summary indicates that the VM guest is unresponsive (for example, a guest kernel panic that keeps the container process running) without triggering a full error workflow. The ready count for the application decreases to reflect the unhealthy state.

Status transitions
Copy link

The following transitions represent the normal VM application lifecycle:

  • Deploy: Preparing Starting Running
  • Stop: Running Stopping Stopped
  • Start: Stopped Starting Running
  • Restart: Running Stopping Starting Running
  • Crash: Running Error (auto-restart triggers if restartPolicy: OnFailure is set)
  • Guest shutdown: Running Completed

Stopped, Completed, and Error states
Copy link

Three states indicate that a VM is not running, each with a different cause:

Stopped
The VM was intentionally stopped by the operator through flightctl app stop or the UI Stop action. Auto-restart does not trigger in this state.
Completed
The VM guest shut down naturally from inside the guest operating system, such as when a user runs poweroff. The operator did not request the shutdown.
Error
The VM entered an error state due to a guest kernel panic, a QEMU crash, or the container process stopping unexpectedly. If restartPolicy: OnFailure is configured, the agent automatically restarts the application.
Note

The Stopped and Stopping status values are additions to the ApplicationStatusType enumeration that apply to all application types, not only VM applications.