This is the standard RMON row-status control for the alarm entry, governing whether the row is active, being created, under modification, or invalid and deleted. Setting this to valid is what activates the entry and locks most of its other columns, such as interval, variable, and thresholds, against further changes, since several of those fields explicitly state they can't be modified once status is valid. To build a new alarm, an admin sets the other columns first while status is createAndWait, then flips this to valid to make the alarm live.