Resource Dependencies

A dependent resource requires, or depends on, another resource to operate. For example, if a Generic Application resource requires access to shared physical storage; it would depend on a Physical Disk resource. The following terms describe resources in a dependency relationship:

  • A dependent resource depends on other resources (the dependencies).
  • A dependency is a resource on which another resource depends.
  • A dependency hierarchy is a series of dependency relationships such that resource A depends on resource B, resource B depends on resource C, and so on.

Resources in a dependency relationship obey the following rules:

  • A dependent resource and all of its dependencies must be in the same group.
  • The Cluster service takes a dependent resource offline before any of its dependencies are taken offline, and brings a dependent resource online after all its dependencies are online, as determined by the dependency hierarchy.

Some of the default resource types have required dependencies, as summarized in the following table.

Resource Required dependencies
DHCP Service Physical Disk resource
Distributed Transaction Coordinator Network Name resource, Physical Disk resource
File Share None
Generic Application None
Generic Service None
IP Address None
Message Queuing (MSMQ) IP Address resource, Network Name resource, Physical Disk resource
Network Name IP Address resource
Physical Disk None
Print Spooler Network Name resource, Physical Disk resource
WINS Service Physical Disk resource