During processing of APPC LCM requests the TRANSACTION table hold the state of the request.  Initially the state is set to RECEIVED then ACCEPTED if the request is one that can be processed.  Once the transaction succeeds or fails the TRANSACTION table is updated accordingly.  One occurrence was observed where the transaction remained in ACCEPTED status.  This was observed during testing of the system and it is possible nodes were being brought up and down as part of the testing needs at the time and some request become orphaned.  With an entry of ACCEPTED in the TRANSACTION table, further transactions will be rejected/failed until that request is successes or failed.  This is required behavior in cases where a VNF transaction is in progress and the system needs to disallow further transactions until the request is complete (FORCE FLAG option on request is FALSE, when FORCE FLAG on LCM request is TRUE, this table is ignored).

We think this situation was an anomaly due to the other disruptive activities in the lab; however, Investigation needs to occur to determine if there is a need to apply an aging factor to such a transaction in this state and take corrective action if that limit is reached, or else what process is required to remove it from that state.  This is considered an edge case and has only been observed once during testing.

Workaround:

Should that situation occur the transactions will be failed back to the client sending the request.  If the VNF is in a state where further transaction can occur,  the transaction in the TRANSACTION table can either be deleted or else the state updated to FAILED, REJECTED, TIMEOUT or ACCEPTED.