CPT performs the following series of functions when generating a protection plan:

    • Validates the inputs provided by the user:
      • Checks the presence of all declared VMs.
      • Verifies VMs exist in no more than one whitelist each. 
      • Verifies entries in VM whitelists and blacklists do not overlap.
      • Checks completeness and validity of parameters specified by the administrator.
    • Captures statistics from vCenter and makes recommendations for optimal operation within the environment:
      • Total, per protected domain, and per VM IOPS and MBPS.
      • Replication Log Volume capacity and required performance (IOPS and MBPS).
      • Required network uplink bandwidth.
      • Object store capacity taking into consideration overprovisioning and data growth.
      • RocVA scratch disk capacity (comes into play during PITR/Failover/Failback).
    • Describes optimal configuration of JetStream DR elements including: DRVA, protected domains, etc. based  upon the number of DRVAs and their resources (i.e., CPU and memory). The following rules are used to specify protected domains:
      • All VMs of a protected domain must use the same object store.
      • All VMs of a protected domain must be protected either by Failover or Continuous Failover mode.
      • The total IOPS should be evenly distributed among all protected domains.
      • If possible, total storage capacity should be evenly distributed among all protected domains.
      • All VMs within a protected domain must have the same priority.
      • Higher priority protected domains should use higher bandwidth object stores.
    • Creates the associated files:
      • Resource (resource.txt)
        A summary of resource consumption of DRVAs, domains and VMs of the protected site presented in table format. Data for this report are generated after JetStream DR has begun operation.
      • Plan Resource Recommendation (resource_recommendations.txt)
        A detailed description of recommended resources to configure the cluster according to parameters specified during protection plan setup. This report can be used to plan new installations of JetStream DR software.
      • Protection Plan (start_protection_plan_auto_gen.yml)
        A copy of the protection plan that can be edited directly by the user. Its default values are derived from the parameters specified during protection plan setup.
      • Continuous Failover Plan (cfo_plan_auto_gen.yml)
        An editable plan file to use to execute on the Recovery Site. Its values are derived from the parameters specified during protection plan setup. NOTE: This file is only generated if a CFO Priority option has been specified on the General screen (first step).


Note: Files created by CPT are stored under the directory jetdr/plans/ in sequentially numbered folders corresponding to the instance a CPT task was run. E.g., The first task performed on CPT will have any files generated by it stored in folder 1 (jetdr/plans/1). The next task performed on CPT will have its contents stored in folder 2 (jetdr/plans/2). And so on…  The folder numbers are cumulative and span across CPT sessions.

To be able to locate specific files, a best practice is to use folder properties to chronologically identify folders and their contents.