When a node's connection to a remote node is dormant, RACF® saves outgoing requests to the remote node in a workspace data set until the connection becomes operative. See Workspace data sets for information on workspace data sets.

If the connection is operative when you issue a TARGET command to make it dormant, the other node detects that the connection has been made dormant. The other node then saves all further requests for the node that issued the TARGET in a workspace data set.

There might be times when you need to make a connection dormant in order to perform a function. For example, to delete the connection with a node, you must first make the connection with that node dormant.

See Controlling outgoing requests from the local node for more information on how to define a connection as dormant.