Solaris 10 zone states

Here's a list of the states a non-global zone can be in:

configured - zone is configured, but it's yet to have its initial boot

incomplete - zoneadm command sets a zone's state to this value while installing and uninstalling a zone. When the operation is completed, zone's status is changed.

installed - zone is fully configured, OS packages have been installed. It's a ready-to-use zone, all you have to do is to boot it. The zone has no virtual platform associated yet.

ready - the zone is ready. It already has a virtual platform established, the kernel has created a zsched process, all the network interfaces are plumbed, devices are configured and file systems are mounted. No processes have been started yet, but since the zone is ready it already has a unique ID assigned to it. We normally don't see a zone in this state, and it always moves one to the next one - running.

running - the zone is up and running. You can connect to the zone. It's a fully working environment now.

shutting down and down - short-term states which are shown when the zone is being halted. Upon completion of halt, the zone gets back into installed state.