Important notices for system administrators:

  • Virtual Machines must be located on shared storage. All datastores, on which VMs to be protected are located, must be accessible from all hosts in a cluster.
  • Enabling DRS is strongly recommended for protected and recovery clusters because it is required for DR components HA and to uninstall or upgrade JetStream software.
  • The JetStream DR management console supports single client access only. Otherwise, configuration changes may be reflected incorrectly in the GUI.
  • If linked vCenters are used, then JetStream DR must be installed and upgraded on all vCenters at the same time. The installed JetStream DR version must match across all vCenters.
  • Do not make changes to the configuration of any JetStream DR component (i.e., virtual appliances automatically created during Failover, Failback, Restore, and PIT recovery) other than by using utilities provided by JetStream Software, including taking or removing snapshots. (One exception; however, is adjusting the backing policy of MSA and DRVA replication log disks.) (DRBC-7450)
  • When using the GUI to configure a cluster, installation may fail and storage policies will not be created on the vCenter server. This is a known VMware limitation.
    • Work-around: Check the storage provider status to make sure it is ‘Online.’ If it is not online, refer to the VMware KB article: Certain IOFIlter Providers are showing as offline [https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=318887] (56619)
    • If a JetStream DR storage policy fails to be created, click the “Resolve Configure Issue” button to resolve the problem.
    • From AVS, the user may need to run Resolve-ClusterIssue cmdlet.
  • Failover and failback wizards present a VM “Storage Policy” drop-down option during task submission. This is an optional selection, and if not specified, the datastore default policy will be used. In some environments the default policy may not be appropriate. An appropriate policy should be selected based upon the target environment. Specifically, when selecting VSAN RAID FTT, refer to VMware VSAN documentation for policies and ESXi node requirements to make sure the target environment can support the RAID policies (e.g., has an appropriate number of hosts).
  • VMware has officially stopped supporting vSphere 6.7. However, if vSphere 6.7 is currently being used, it is possible to try JetStream DR software for “proof-of-concept” purposes before officially switching to vSphere 7.0 for production. JetStream DR is able to run on vCenter 6.7 U1 (build 10244745) and above with ESXi 6.7 P03 (build 16713306) and above, with IO Filters being manually installed on all hosts. However, JetStream DR cannot be used for production with 6.7 vCenter and ESXi.
  • The number of virtual disks from all VMs in all domains that are protected under a single DRVA should not exceed 500.
  • The maximum recommended number of protected domains per DRVA is 4-6. The administrator can determine the optimal configuration of domains using the CPT utility from JetStream Tools.
  • When starting Resume Continuous Rehydration (RCR), the user is only required to enter a default gateway. Other RocVA network parameters for the recovery site are not necessary. (DRBC-7590)
    Default network configuration settings are:
    • Network selections same as the DRVA
    • All interfaces use DHCP
    • Default gateway as originally configured
  • After an MSA is registered with vCenter, the IP/FQDN under which it was registered must not be changed. If a change is required, unregister the MSA, change its IP, then register it again.