This string is a qualifier that elaborates on the current operational state of this internal backplane link, giving a more specific reason than the plain up/down state alone. It matters on the internal Ethernet link that carries a blade's traffic from the chassis I/O Module up to a Fabric Interconnect over the backplane because two links can both show operState down for entirely different reasons, and this field is what actually differentiates, say, an admin shutdown from a failed link-training negotiation. A stateQual value indicating a failed link handshake on this backplane link sends an admin toward checking transceiver compatibility, whereas a qualifier indicating 'disabled by user' would not.