A resource instance is the instantiation of a ResourceAgent into a real resource, rather than the general ResourceAgentType of the ResourceAgent.
For example, IPaddr is the type of a resource agent. But, to instantiate (or create) a particular IPaddr resource, one needs to have the parameters which describe this particular IPaddr object and distinguish it from all other IPaddr resources. For example, one might create an IPaddr object which needs three parameters in order to describe it. They might be
The parameters for any ResourceAgent are described by its ResourceAgentMetadata.
So, to deal with a resource instance of an IPaddr resource, one needs to give its parameters. An example might be
And, this resource instance would be distinct from the following one:
For more information regarding resource instances, also refer to the OpenClusterFramework ResourceAgent API.
It is worth noting that this is the best description available, but the LocalResourceManager is not limited to OCF ResourceAgents.