This value reports the current overall status of the FSM workflow tracked by the finite-state-machine object that drives a physical port's own workflow (such as a re-discovery cycle) from start to finish. An administrator polling many switches at once filters on fsmStatus for this PhysFsm instance to quickly find which workflows have failed and need attention versus which are still progressing normally. For example, an fsmStatus stuck showing 'in progress' on this PhysFsm instance long after the operation should have finished is a sign worth escalating.