Connection states

While at a high level there are two types of connections between nodes, operative and dormant, at a lower level the connection between two nodes can be in any one of a number of states. Table 1 shows the states that can exist for a connection between two nodes. You might see references to these states in error messages. These states also appear in the output from a TARGET LIST command, showing the status of the connections from the perspective of the local node. See Listing the attributes of target nodes for more information about TARGET LIST. For further information about connection states and transitions between them, see z/OS Security Server RACF Diagnosis Guide.

Table 1. Connection states between nodes
Name	Abbreviation	Description
operative pending connection	O-P-C	The local node has requested that the connection be activated and is attempting to activate the conversation. The local node has not yet received a confirmation that the remote node will accept the connection. This state can occur while the local node is attempting to restore a successful connection that was interrupted.
operative pending verification	O-P-V	The local node's request for a conversation has been accepted. The two nodes are communicating and evaluating information they have exchanged to determine if they are compatible. The information can include RACF information and the digital certificates exchanged during the TLS handshake performed by TCP/IP. If the two nodes are not compatible, both nodes will remain in the operative pending verification state.
operative active	O-A	The connection between two nodes is active. The two nodes have verified that they can communicate with each other and that they are compatible with each other.
operative in error	O-E	A non-retryable error has occurred related to workspace data sets (for example, a volume has gone offline). Console or syslog messages have been issued with more information.
dormant by local request	D-L	The local node's connection with a remote node has been made dormant by an operator issuing a TARGET DORMANT command.
dormant by remote request	D-R	The local node has detected that the connection to the remote node has been made dormant by the remote node or the APPC connection between the local and remote nodes has not been defined on the remote node. This state can occur if the local node cannot successfully connect with a node after a reasonable amount of time.
dormant by mutual request	D-B	The local and remote nodes have both requested the connection be dormant by an operator issuing a TARGET DORMANT command on each system.
dormant in error	D-E	The local node is dormant and a failure is experienced while saving RRSF requests for later processing.
defined	DEF	TARGET information has been defined, but no conversation occurs. This state occurs: Between member systems of a multisystem node. Systems in a multisystem node do not communicate with each other. Between a local nonmain system and a nonmain system on a remote multisystem node. Nonmain systems of multisystem nodes can communicate with single-system nodes and with the main systems of multisystem nodes, but they do not communicate with nonmain systems of other multisystem nodes.
not defined (initial)	???	No connection has been established to the node due to insufficient configuration information, or because a TARGET OPERATIVE or TARGET DORMANT command has not been issued for the node. The TARGET LIST command output shows this state as `???`.