A mandatory ordering constraint ensures a resource waits for another to complete an action, such as start, stop, promote, or demote. For example, ordering resource A before B prevents B from starting until A succeeds. Set the kind option to Mandatory or use the default.

If the symmetrical option is set to true or left to default, the opposite actions will be ordered in reverse. The start and stop actions are opposites, and demote and promote are opposites. For example, a symmetrical "promote A then start B" ordering implies "stop B then demote A", which means that A cannot be demoted until and unless B successfully stops. A symmetrical ordering means that changes in A’s state can cause actions to be scheduled for B. For example, given "A then B", if A restarts due to failure, B will be stopped first, then A will be stopped, then A will be started, then B will be started.

Note that the cluster reacts to each state change. If the first resource is restarted and is in a started state again before the second resource initiated a stop operation, the second resource will not need to be restarted.