Handshaking involves verifying that two RRSF nodes can communicate with each other and are compatible. Handshaking occurs whenever a TARGET command is issued to activate the connection between the local node and a remote node if sufficient information has been provided. Activating a remote node connection requires sufficient information to do all of the following:

• Allocate and open the VSAM data sets (INMSG and OUTMSG data sets)
• Register the RACF® subsystem address space (as an APPC/MVS server for the APPC protocol, or a socket listener for the TCP/IP protocol)
• Define the required protocol information for the remote node