Embodiments of an application template process that provides application consistent backups for a wide range of database applications and deployment configurations. The defined application template allows specifying suspend (quiesce) and restart (unquiesce) commands for each type of database application and template selectors to select resources to sequence dependent resources to ensure application consistency of the backup operation in a cluster configuration. Prehook and posthook annotations provide entry points for execution of appropriate program scripts to suspend and restart the respective resource during execution of the application.