A node can control what requests it sends to other nodes, but a node has no control over what requests other nodes send to it; it can control only whether requests are sent. The OPERATIVE and DORMANT keywords on the TARGET command control whether incoming requests from the remote node are sent immediately or held.

Use the OPERATIVE keyword to request that a connection to a node be made active, or operative. When a connection with a remote node is made operative, all requests for the local node (such as directed commands) that are held in the OUTMSG data set of the remote node are sent to the local node. As long as the connection remains operative, new requests from the remote node are sent when they are placed in the OUTMSG data set.

Use the DORMANT keyword to request that a connection to a node be made inactive, or dormant. When a connection is dormant, RACF® saves requests from the remote node (such as directed commands) in its OUTMSG workspace data set on the remote node. The requests are held until the connection is made operative. Requests that have been received from the remote node, but not yet processed, are saved in the INMSG data set. RACF continues to process requests in the INMSG data set even if the connection is dormant.