When you schedule a control
flow, each instance goes through
a cycle of states: ideally from Scheduled to Running to Successful.
To troubleshoot problems, you need to understand these states and
what actions you can take for each state.
The state of a control flow instance determines
what you can do
to manage the instance. For example, you cannot delete an instance
that is in an interim state: Scheduled, Running, or Stopping.
A
control flow instance has the following seven possible states:
- Scheduled
- The Scheduled state is a temporary,
interim state that persists
until the instance starts running.
- Running
- The first state for any unscheduled control flow
instance, regardless
of how the instance started. If you start a control flow immediately,
or restart a failed or stopped instance, the instance enters the
Running state. For a scheduled control flow instance, this is the
state a control flow moves into when its scheduled time arrives.
- Successful
- The final state
that a control flow instance moves into when all
of its activities run to completion.
- Warnings
- The final state that a control flow instance
moves into when the
instance runs to completion and the failure of an activity is ignored
because the activity failure is set to ignore in the control flow.
- Failed
- The potentially final
state that a control flow instance moves
into when running the instance fails at some point in the process
flow. Failed control flow instances can be restarted. When you restart
an instance, it moves from the Scheduled state to Running. Instances
restart from the beginning of the process, not from the point of
failure.
- Stopping
- The
interim state that a control flow instance moves into when
you stop it from the console. When you stop an instance, it remains
in the Stopping state until the currently running activity finishes.
If a failure occurs before a stop request can be processed, the instance
moves to the Failed state, not the Stopped state.
- Stopped
- The potentially final state that
a control flow instance moves
into when you stop it from the console. Stopped control flow instances
can be restarted. When you restart an instance, it moves from the
Scheduled state to Running. Instances restart from the beginning
of the process, not from the point where they were stopped.