Type of session activated

The type of session that VTAM® activates in response to the allocation request depends on the following conditions:

If the number of active sessions is less than the new overall session limit, and the sum of the new minimum number of contention-winner sessions for both the source side and target side is less than the new session limit, both LUs can activate additional contention-winner sessions on a first-come-first-serve basis up to the new session limit. These sessions can be activated only in response to allocation requests.
In this case, the difference between the overall session limit and the sum of the contention-winner sessions can be thought of as a pool of potential contention-winner sessions that either LU can use.
If the number of active contention-winner sessions for either LU equals the overall session limit minus the minimum number of contention-winner sessions for its partner, and the number of active sessions is less than the overall session limit, the LU can activate additional contention-loser sessions up to the new session limit. These sessions can be activated only in response to allocation requests.
In this case, any pool of potential contention-winner sessions that might have existed has been used. The only available session resources are from the pool of potential contention-winner sessions guaranteed to the partner LU. Consequently, VTAM can activate only a contention-loser session.