Missing are error states. For instance, "starting" may well lead to an error state such as "failed to boot". The VM may well be spinning cycles at "Kernel panic", "db>", or "Failure on Drive C, abort,retry,fail". The failed state is important for clients to know, and possibly also for billing. Another state that I can think of that might be important is network disconnect --- you may have a VM that is ACTIVE, but the networks are disconnected. I'd call this state "STANDBY" (Or not yet connected). I often do this in my virtualized infrastructure: bring up a VM with a new version of software, on a new IP, with VRRP/CARP configured, but I'm not going to connect it on the live side until it's confirmed to be up, at which point, I enable the networking, and it takes over the virtual IP. -- ] Y'avait une poule de jammé dans l'muffler!!!!!!!!! | firewalls [ ] Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works, Ottawa, ON |net architect[ ] mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/ |device driver[ ] panic("Just another Debian GNU/Linux using, kernel hacking, security guy"); [