diff --git a/ceilometer/compute/pollsters/util.py b/ceilometer/compute/pollsters/util.py
index a9371f11..f3268997 100644
--- a/ceilometer/compute/pollsters/util.py
+++ b/ceilometer/compute/pollsters/util.py
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ def _get_metadata_from_object(instance):
         'host': instance.hostId,
         'flavor': instance.flavor,
         'status': instance.status.lower(),
+        'state': getattr(instance, 'OS-EXT-STS:vm_state', u''),
     }
 
     # Image properties
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/base.py b/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/base.py
index 1aa3afe7..95fd86b2 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/base.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/base.py
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ class TestPollsterBase(base.BaseTestCase):
         self.instance.name = 'instance-00000001'
         setattr(self.instance, 'OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name',
                 self.instance.name)
+        setattr(self.instance, 'OS-EXT-STS:vm_state',
+                'active')
         self.instance.id = 1
         self.instance.flavor = {'name': 'm1.small', 'id': 2, 'vcpus': 1,
                                 'ram': 512, 'disk': 20, 'ephemeral': 0}
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/test_instance.py b/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/test_instance.py
index ea6df35d..f100f543 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/test_instance.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/unit/compute/pollsters/test_instance.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ class TestInstancePollster(base.TestPollsterBase):
         self.assertEqual(20, samples[0].resource_metadata['root_gb'])
         self.assertEqual(0, samples[0].resource_metadata['ephemeral_gb'])
         self.assertEqual('active', samples[0].resource_metadata['status'])
+        self.assertEqual('active', samples[0].resource_metadata['state'])
 
     @mock.patch('ceilometer.pipeline.setup_pipeline', mock.MagicMock())
     def test_get_reserved_metadata_with_keys(self):