---
title: Swarm task states
description: Learn about tasks that are scheduled on your swarm.
keywords: swarm, task, service
aliases:
- /datacenter/ucp/2.2/guides/admin/monitor-and-troubleshoot/troubleshoot-task-state/
---
Docker lets you create services, which can start tasks. A service is a
description of a desired state, and a task does the work. Work is scheduled on
swarm nodes in this sequence:
1. Create a service by using `docker service create`.
2. The request goes to a Docker manager node.
3. The Docker manager node schedules the service to run on particular nodes.
4. Each service can start multiple tasks.
5. Each task has a life cycle, with states like `NEW`, `PENDING`, and `COMPLETE`.
Tasks are execution units that run once to completion. When a task stops, it
isn't executed again, but a new task may take its place.
Tasks advance through a number of states until they complete or fail. Tasks are
initialized in the `NEW` state. The task progresses forward through a number of
states, and its state doesn't go backward. For example, a task never goes from
`COMPLETE` to `RUNNING`.
Tasks go through the states in the following order:
| Task state | Description |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `NEW` | The task was initialized. |
| `PENDING` | Resources for the task were allocated. |
| `ASSIGNED` | Docker assigned the task to nodes. |
| `ACCEPTED` | The task was accepted by a worker node. If a worker node rejects the task, the state changes to `REJECTED`. |
| `READY` | The worker node is ready to start the task |
| `PREPARING` | Docker is preparing the task. |
| `STARTING` | Docker is starting the task. |
| `RUNNING` | The task is executing. |
| `COMPLETE` | The task exited without an error code. |
| `FAILED` | The task exited with an error code. |
| `SHUTDOWN` | Docker requested the task to shut down. |
| `REJECTED` | The worker node rejected the task. |
| `ORPHANED` | The node was down for too long. |
| `REMOVE` | The task is not terminal but the associated service was removed or scaled down. |
## View task state
Run `docker service ps <service-name>` to get the state of a task. The
`CURRENT STATE` field shows the task's state and how long it's been
there.
```console
$ docker service ps webserver
ID NAME IMAGE NODE DESIRED STATE CURRENT STATE ERROR PORTS
owsz0yp6z375 webserver.1 nginx UbuntuVM Running Running 44 seconds ago
j91iahr8s74p \_ webserver.1 nginx UbuntuVM Shutdown Failed 50 seconds ago "No such container: webserver.…"
7dyaszg13mw2 \_ webserver.1 nginx UbuntuVM Shutdown Failed 5 hours ago "No such container: webserver.…"
```
## Where to go next
- [Learn about swarm tasks](https://github.com/docker/swarmkit/blob/master/design/task_model.md)