diff --git a/membervm_nogui.yml b/membervm_nogui.yml
index b20c2f8bbd4a95155cd1e0df794fcf3cd5a14243..b6528f6a3ec10be29f0aa958bdd540415dc69cc5 100644
--- a/membervm_nogui.yml
+++ b/membervm_nogui.yml
@@ -28,3 +28,4 @@
   disk: 50G # must be >= 50G
   primary_user: auser
   primary_sshkey: "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAICSY5zCVa6hsWgGM08u4WVl1bPRjmxLzDyk51ioAd0nT jimbo@potoroo"
+  state: running # can be either running or stopped