diff --git a/include/crm/common/internal.h b/include/crm/common/internal.h
index cef01851ba..710ee8e566 100644
--- a/include/crm/common/internal.h
+++ b/include/crm/common/internal.h
@@ -1,79 +1,114 @@
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2015
  *     Andrew Beekhof <andrew@beekhof.net>
  *
  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  * it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
  * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  * (at your option) any later version.
  *
  * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  * GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
  *
  * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
  * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
  * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
  */
 
 /*!
  * \file
  * \brief   internal common utilities
  * \ingroup core
  * \note    Public APIs are declared in util.h
  */
 
 #ifndef CRM_COMMON_INTERNAL__H
 #define CRM_COMMON_INTERNAL__H
 
 #include <glib.h>       /* for gboolean */
 #include <dirent.h>     /* for struct dirent */
 #include <sys/types.h>  /* for uid_t and gid_t */
 
+#include <crm/common/logging.h>
+
 /* internal I/O utilities (from io.c) */
 
 char *generate_series_filename(const char *directory, const char *series, int sequence,
                                gboolean bzip);
 int get_last_sequence(const char *directory, const char *series);
 void write_last_sequence(const char *directory, const char *series, int sequence, int max);
 int crm_chown_last_sequence(const char *directory, const char *series, uid_t uid, gid_t gid);
 
 gboolean crm_is_writable(const char *dir, const char *file, const char *user, const char *group,
                          gboolean need_both);
 
 void crm_sync_directory(const char *name);
 
 char *crm_read_contents(const char *filename);
 int crm_write_sync(int fd, const char *contents);
 
 
 /* internal procfs utilities (from procfs.c) */
 
 int crm_procfs_process_info(struct dirent *entry, char *name, int *pid);
 int crm_procfs_pid_of(const char *name);
 
 
 /* internal XML schema functions (from xml.c) */
 
 void crm_schema_init(void);
 void crm_schema_cleanup(void);
 
 
 /* internal generic string functions (from strings.c) */
 
 char *crm_concat(const char *prefix, const char *suffix, char join);
 void g_hash_destroy_str(gpointer data);
 long long crm_int_helper(const char *text, char **end_text);
 gboolean crm_ends_with(const char *s, const char *match);
 char *add_list_element(char *list, const char *value);
 bool crm_compress_string(const char *data, int length, int max, char **result,
                          unsigned int *result_len);
 
 static inline int
 crm_strlen_zero(const char *s)
 {
     return !s || *s == '\0';
 }
 
+/* convenience functions for failure-related node attributes */
+
+#define CRM_FAIL_COUNT_PREFIX   "fail-count"
+#define CRM_LAST_FAILURE_PREFIX "last-failure"
+
+/*!
+ * \internal
+ * \brief Generate a failure-related node attribute name for a resource
+ *
+ * \param[in] prefix    Start of attribute name
+ * \param[in] rsc_id    Resource name
+ *
+ * \return Newly allocated string with attribute name
+ */
+static inline char *
+crm_fail_attr_name(const char *prefix, const char *rsc_id)
+{
+    CRM_CHECK(prefix && rsc_id, return NULL);
+    return crm_strdup_printf("%s-%s", prefix, rsc_id);
+}
+
+static inline char *
+crm_failcount_name(const char *rsc_id)
+{
+    return crm_fail_attr_name(CRM_FAIL_COUNT_PREFIX, rsc_id);
+}
+
+static inline char *
+crm_lastfailure_name(const char *rsc_id)
+{
+    return crm_fail_attr_name(CRM_LAST_FAILURE_PREFIX, rsc_id);
+}
+
 #endif /* CRM_COMMON_INTERNAL__H */