Two RRSF nodes are said to be logically connected when they are configured to communicate by way of APPC/MVS or TCP/IP, their RACF® subsystem address spaces are active, and they have been defined to RACF as RRSF nodes that can communicate with each other.

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, as documented in Connection states.