Unlinked resources are SRM resources that provide specific capacities and capabilities, but are not yet linked to existing instances of the device or product. Typically, the actual instances only get created/activated as part of the orchestration of the booking.

An example could be e.g. a cloud server capable of hosting a number of transcode instances, potentially each covering different capabilities/capacities. SRM resources could be created for this specific server and available for SRM booking to use with its capabilities and capacities, however without even any actual transcode instances already existing on the cloud server. Instead, the orchestration would, as part of the orchestration at start or preroll time of the booking, spin up the transcode instance on the cloud server with its required capabilities/capacities, and link it to the booking SRM resource to represent also the corresponding resource health.

So, unlinked resources typically get linked at orchestration time of the booking, as that is the time that the actual instances on the platform/product are created.