An example method is provided to maintain state information of a virtual machine in a virtualized computing environment through an externally-triggered approach. The method may comprise detecting, by an external entity, that a first host in a cluster is disconnected from a first network connecting the first host to a distributed storage system accessible by the cluster. The method may also comprise instructing the first host to suspend a virtual machine supported by the first host and to store state information associated with the virtual machine. The method may further comprise selecting a second host from the cluster and instructing the first host to migrate the suspended virtual machine to the second host such that the suspended virtual machine is able to resume from suspension on the second host based on the stored state information.