A resource type is a collection of properties that describe an application to the cluster. These properties includes information about how the application is to be started, stopped, and monitored on nodes of the cluster. A resource type also includes application-specific properties that need to be defined so that the application can be used in the cluster. Sun Cluster data services have several predefined resource types. For example, Sun Cluster HA for Oracle is the resource type SUNW.oracle-server, and Sun Cluster HA for Apache is the resource type SUNW.apache.
A resource is an instance of a resource type that is defined cluster wide. The resource type enables multiple instances of an application to be installed on the cluster. When you initialize a resource, the resource group manager (RGM) assigns values to application-specific properties and the resource inherits any properties from the resource type .
Data services use several types of resources. Applications such as Apache Web Server or Sun Java System Web Server use network addresses (logical hostnames and shared addresses) on which the applications depend. Application and network resources form a basic unit that is managed by the RGM.