Relationship states

Just as a component is characterized by its status, a relationship is characterized by its state. Relationship state values are defined internally in the cell as the enumeration MC_SM_RELATIONSHIP_STATE.

A relationship can be either active or inactive, as shown in the following table:

In status propagation models, the state of a relationship determines whether the provider's status or a modification of it is passed to the consumer service component.

Status propagation models

A propagation model defines how the status of a provider component must be propagated in an impact relationship, based on the following details:

• The current state of the relationship (active or inactive).
• The current value of the provider's status.

Status propagation models are used only by impact relationships. The role of the BMC_STATUS_PROPAGATION class instance is to restrict the use of a propagation model to consumer and provider relationships.

Status propagation models serve the following purposes:

• Relationship control–Propagation models enforce logical rules in new component relationships so that only valid relationships are created.
• Dynamic status mapping–Propagation models translate the computed status of the provider component into a propagated status for input into the impact_function slot of the related consumer component.