It is assumed the protected site includes a single vSphere-based service cluster providing administrative services (vCenter, DNS, Microsoft Entra ID, etc.) to one or more vSphere compute clusters, in which line-of-business applications run. The two cluster types will contain the following components:

    • Service Cluster
      • vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)
      • JetStream DR Management Server Appliance (MSA)
    • Compute Cluster(s)
      • vSphere host servers
      • Virtual machines
      • JetStream DR Virtual Appliances (DRVA) – minimum one for the entire cluster; multiple can be added (but no more than one per vSphere host)
      • A low-latency, shared flash storage device. This can be controlled by JetStream software or provided by a third party. It is used as the repository for the replication log volume.

The protected site should adhere to the following guidelines:

Item

Comments

VMware vCenter Server

Supported Versions

7.0 Update 3c (U3 build number #19234570) and above.

HTTPS Port

If using a firewall, HTTPS port 443 must be open.

Connectivity

The JetStream DR Management Server Appliance FQDN must be reachable from vCenter Server, otherwise the plug-in installation will fail.

Time

The vCenter Server and JetStream DR MSA clocks must be synchronized.

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

DRS is strongly recommended on the compute cluster for resource balancing.

Cluster

vSphere Hosts

VMs to be protected by JetStream DR must be part of a cluster.

vSphere Host

Supported Versions

ESXi 7.0 Update 3c (U3 build number #19193900) and above.

Note: All hosts in the cluster must run the same version of ESXi.

Time

vSphere hosts and JetStream DR MSA clocks must be synchronized.

Connectivity

vCenter Server FQDN must be reachable from the host, otherwise the host configuration will fail.

CIM Service

The CIM server must be enabled on the vSphere hosts of the protected VMs. This is the default setting. (This requirement applies to ESXi 7.x only.)

JetStream DR Management Server Appliance (MSA)

An MSA will be deployed during configuration prior to DR protection.
Configure the MSA according to the following specifications for: CPU, Memory, Disk Space, Network and DNS.

CPU

64 bit, 4 vCPUs

Memory

8GB

Disk Space

68GB

Network

Static or dynamically assigned (DHCP) IP addresses can be used for the MSA interface. The FQDN should be registered with DNS.

DNS

DNS name resolution for vSphere hosts, vCenter Server, and object storage.

Important: DO NOT attempt to protect the JetStream MSA using JetStream DR.

JetStream DR Virtual Appliance (DRVA)

The DRVA is an .ISO image file that is automatically deployed by the JetStream DR management server during installation.

Minimum requirements for the DRVA are:

CPU

4 Cores

Memory

8GB

Network

Static or dynamically assigned (DHCP) IP addresses can be used for the DRVA interface.

Important: DO NOT attempt to protect JetStream recovery appliances (including DRVA, RocVA or RVM) using JetStream DR.

Replication Log Volume

For optimal performance, the protected site should expose a low-latency, flash storage device that is shared by the hosts in the cluster. This device can be controlled by the JetStream DR software or provided by a third party. It is used as a repository for the replication log. DR Virtual Appliances (DRVA) and ESXi host(s) must have direct access to this storage over iSCSI.

Ports

When JetStream DR software is installed, a range of ports will automatically be opened on the source ESXi hosts. For most users, no additional action is necessary. In cases where the on-premises/source setup has special firewall rules blocking these ports, additional administrative steps will be needed to manually open these ports.

Port Range

32873-32878

Table 2: Guidelines for the protected site.