notready

Notready is a term used to describe a non-ready state in computing, hardware, and IT contexts. It typically denotes that a component, process, or service has not yet completed initialization, is missing required resources, or is temporarily unable to perform its intended function. The exact interpretation of “not ready” varies by system, and the form may appear as NotReady, NOT_READY, or the phrase “Not Ready.”

In software and services, notready is often used as a status or error indicator in initialization sequences or asynchronous workflows. Programs may expose a NotReady status when a prerequisite task has not finished, when a dependent service is unavailable, or when data is not yet loaded. APIs and state machines may rely on NotReady to gate actions until conditions are met, at which point the status can transition to Ready or another operational state.

In hardware, devices such as printers, storage units, or network interfaces may report Not Ready when they are offline, warming up, undergoing a reset, or awaiting user action. Not Ready can also occur during hardware repairs, firmware updates, or media loading, signaling that the device cannot yet process requests.

In networks and infrastructure, Not Ready can describe services or endpoints that are healthy but not yet able to handle traffic due to dependency checks, maintenance, or scaling events. Health checks and readiness probes in containerized environments frequently use Not Ready to prevent routing traffic to services that are not prepared.

Common guidance for handling NotReady includes verifying prerequisites, checking configuration and dependencies, reviewing logs, and implementing controlled retries with backoff.

See also: Ready, Not Available, Not Initialized, Not Running.