In cases where the coupling facility structure hosting the note pad becomes temporarily inaccessible, a single note request and a multi-note request will complete with a return and reason code indicating that the note pad is quiesced. A note pad can be quiesced, for example, if the local system loses connectivity to the coupling facility that contains the note pad or if the structure hosting the note pad is being rebuilt. The duration of the quiesce is indeterminate. A structure rebuild might complete in a few seconds, or it might not complete for several minutes. A loss of coupling facility connectivity might be resolved in a few seconds, or it might require manual intervention that could take minutes or hours to resolve.

Details about the quiescing condition might be stored in the answer area (if any). If present, the details are mapped by ixcynote_tDetailsQuiesced. Various flags indicate the current set of conditions for which the note pad is quiesced. One or more conditions could apply. Depending on the needs of the application, your program might take different actions based on the presence or absence of specific conditions.

In general, you should anticipate that a note pad will be quiesced at some point in its life since structure rebuild is a standard tool used by installations to manage coupling facility structures. Thus most applications should make reasonable attempts to tolerate a quiesced note pad, at least for a short while. If your application is not able to tolerate a quiescing condition, the documentation for your program should provide guidance to the installation. The installation needs to understand what actions should be taken to accommodate your application prior to rebuilding the hosting note pad structure for a planned maintenance action. The installation also needs to understand what actions should be taken to recover your application when the hosting note pad structure is rebuilt as the result of an unexpected failure, as opposed to a planned action.

You must decide how your application will respond when a note pad is quiesced. The needs of the application will determine what is most appropriate. Different actions might be taken for different notes. In some cases, it might be appropriate to apply combinations of actions. In general, one or more of the following actions might be appropriate.

• Ignore the failure. This action might be appropriate if the request is expendable, or if it will be reissued at a later time through normal operation. This action might also be appropriate if the failure is to be surfaced to a higher level in the calling sequence of your program.
• Reissue the request. Since the note pad might remain quiesced for several seconds or more, your program should allow time for the quiescing condition to clear before it reissues the request. Consider limiting the number of such attempts as a safeguard so that your program will not be continually be reissuing requests if the note pad should happen to remain quiesced for an unduly long period.
• Wait for the note pad to become accessible. The note pad connection service can be used to pause some particular work unit until the note pad becomes accessible, or until a specified timeout expires. Waiting for the note pad to become unquiesced can be advantageous to both the system and your application as compared to repeatedly reissuing the request. Reissuing the request while the note pad remains quiesced needlessly consumes system resources. Waiting any amount of time to reissue the request beyond when the note pad becomes accessible needlessly delays processing.
• Delete the connection. This action might be appropriate if the note pad should persist even though the application is to be terminated or the application is to continue without use of the note pad.
• Delete the note pad. This action might be appropriate if the application is to be terminated or if the application will continue operation without use of the note pad.