Table of Contents

exclude	Table of contents

Introduction

The CharonCHARON-AXP product is distributed in form of archive TAR.GZ files that contain RPM modules for different components. Generally it is recommended to install all the RPM modules but it is possible to omit some RPM files if they are not needed.

Charon CHARON installation consists of the following steps:

Host system checks (hardware and software) to ensure the host platform meets the minimum CharonCHARON-AXP installation requirements
Installation of any 3rd party material, for example, the utilities required for CharonCHARON-AXP
Extracting CharonCHARON-AXP RPM modules from the TAR.GZ archive and their individual installation
Installation of the CharonCHARON-AXP license (hardware dongle or software license)
Configuration of the CharonCHARON-AXP host system. It assumes creating a specific user, configuring the network, etc.

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Hardware Requirements

Number of CPU cores

Each CharonCHARON-AXP emulated CPU requires a corresponding physical core. So the total number of the host CPUs must exceed the number of emulated CPUs since some of the host CPUs must be dedicated to serving Charon CHARON I/O operations and host operating system needs. If several Charon CHARON instances run in parallel, the required number of CPU cores is cumulative.

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The following table lists the minimum and recommended number of CPUs required for each virtual HP Alpha instance (note that each Charon CHARON instance is able to run on 2 CPU cores hosts, but this configuration does not support emulation of all the virtual CPUs):

CharonCHARON-AXP product	Minimum number of host CPU cores	Recommended number of host CPU cores
HP AlphaServer 400 - HP AlphaServer 4100	2	2
HP AlphaServer DS10/DS10L/DS15	2	2
HP AlphaServer DS20/DS25	4	4
HP AlphaServer ES40/ES45	6	8
HP AlphaServer GS80	10	16
HP AlphaServer GS160	18	32
HP AlphaServer GS320	34	48

When starting, the CharonCHARON-AXP software checks the available number of host CPU cores. This check is based on the maximum number of AXP CPUs that can be emulated if this number is not restricted by the "n_of_cpus" parameter. If the available number of host CPU cores is below this number, CharonCHARON-AXP will issue a warning message even if the requirements for the configured number of AXP CPUs are fulfilled. The CharonCHARON-AXP software will work despite this warning if the requirements for the configured number of AXP CPUs are fulfilled.

Note
Hyper-threading must be switched off completely. Disable hyper-threading in the BIOS settings of the physical host or, for a VMware virtual machine, edit the virtual machine properties, select the Resources tab then select Advanced CPU. Set the Hyper-threaded Core Sharing mode to None.

CPU type and speed

Since Charon CHARON utilizes LAHF instruction in CPU emulation please avoid usage of early AMD64 and Intel 64 CPUs in Charon CHARON host system since they lack it. AMD introduced the instruction with their Athlon 64, Opteron and Turion 64 revision D processors in March 2005 and Intel introduced it with the Pentium 4 G1 stepping in December 2005.

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depends on the amount of HP Alpha memory to be emulated and on the number of CharonCHARON-AXP instances to be executed on one host.
is calculated according to the following formula:
The minimum host memory = (2Gb + the amount of HP Alpha memory emulated) per CharonCHARON-AXP instance.

Disk storage

The total amount of disk space required for CharonCHARON-AXP can be calculated as a sum of all the disk/tape image sizes plus 50 MB for the Charon CHARON software plus the space required for the host operating system. Temporary disk storage is often needed when setting up a new virtual machine (for source disks backups storage, software installation kits, etc...).

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Ethernet adapters

CharonCHARON-AXP networking requires dedicated host Ethernet adapters; their number must be equal to the emulated adapters to be configured in CharonCHARON-AXP. One adapter (optionally) can be left to the host for TCP/IP networking, management interface, etc.

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Info
The automatic installation of updates must be disabled. Updates to the Charon CHARON host must be done only in specific service maintenance periods established by the system administrator. Before applying new updates one must shutdown the operating system running on Charon CHARON and stop all the running Charon CHARON instances and services.

If a network-wide license (red dongle or software license) is going to be used, do the following:

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Login as the superuser ("root") on the host system. Because Sentinel HASP runtime relies on 32-bit compatibility libraries to run on Linux, the 32-bit compatibility libraries must be installed before continuing. If the emulator host has access to a package repository, either local or remote, use the following command:
# yum install glibc.i686
Sometimes it is not possible to use an online repository for the installation of 32-bit glibc package. In this case the procedure described in the appendixes has to be used: glibc.i686 installation without Internet connection
.
Create a directory for the CharonCHARON-AXP distribution, copy the TAR.GZ files there and change to this directory as shown in the following example:
# mkdir /Charoncharon_dist
# cp /tmp/Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.el74.tar.gz /Charoncharon_dist
# cd /Charoncharon_dist
.
On RHEL 7.x and CentOS 7.x, the "libev" package is required. If it is reported as missing during Charon CHARON installation on RHEL 7.x check that the repository "extras" is included and enabled, if not, include and enable it. Please refer to your Linux distribution administrator's guide. Example for RHEL 7.x:
# yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms

Warning

title	WARNING

If you plan to install CharonCHARON-VAX on the same server, both products, CharonCHARON-AXP and CharonCHARON-VAX, will have to be the same build number.
If you upgrade from a previous version of CharonCHARON-AXP, please stop all running Charon CHARON virtual machines and uninstall Charon CHARON products before proceeding with the installation steps described below.

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Extract the contents of the distribution TAR.GZ files to the current directory:

# tar -xvzf Charoncharon-axp-<VER>-<BN>.<ZZ>.tar.gz

where:

Description

VER

Version of CharonCHARON-AXP product, for example 4.11

BN

Build Number of CharonCHARON-AXP product, for example 20403

ZZ

CharonCHARON-AXP target operating system identifier.

For CentOS 7.x 'ZZ' value is 'el74'
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x 'ZZ' value is 'el74'.
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 to 6.10 'ZZ' value is 'el65'.

Example:

# tar -xvzf Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.el74.tar.gz

As a result, the new directory "Charoncharon-axp-<VER>-<BN>.<ZZ>" will be created.

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Switch to that directory:
# cd Charoncharon-axp-<VER>-<BN>.<ZZ>
Example:
# cd Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.el74

The distribution directory contains the following RPM files:

File name	Description
Charoncharon-axp-VER-BN.ZZ.x86_64.rpm	CharonCHARON-AXP
aksusbd-7.63-1.i386.rpm	HASP Run-time
Charoncharon-license-VER-BN.ZZ.x86_64.rpm	Charon CHARON Libraries
Charoncharon-utils-VER-BN.ZZ.x86_64.rpm	Charon CHARON Utilities
Charoncharon-mtd-VER-BN.ZZ.x86_64.rpm	MTD utility

Example:

# ls
aksusbd-7.63-1.i386.rpm
Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64.rpm
Charoncharon-license-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64.rpm Charoncharon-utils-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64.rpmCharoncharon-mtd-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64.rpm

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Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
aksusbd i386 7.63-1 /aksusbd-7.63-1.i386 2.9 M
Charon charon-axp x86_64 4.11-20403 /Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64 260 M
Charon charon-license
x86_64 4.11-20403 /Charoncharon-license-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64 2.9 M
Charon charon-utils
x86_64 4.11-20403 /Charoncharon-utils-4.11-20403.el74.x86_64 1.8 M Charoncharon-mtd x86_64 4.11-20403 /Charoncharon-mtd-4.11-20403.68704.el74.x86_64 1.2 M

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 4 Packages

Total size: 267 M
Installed size: 267 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y

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Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction (shutdown inhibited)
Installing : aksusbd-7.63-1.i386 1/4
Starting aksusbd (via systemctl): [ OK ]
Installing : Charoncharon-utils-4.11-20403.x86_64 2/5 Installing : Charoncharon-mtd-4.11-20403.x86_64 3/5
Installing : Charoncharon-license-4.11-20403.x86_64 4/5
Installing : Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.x86_64 5/5
Verifying : aksusbd-7.63-1.i386 1/5
Verifying : Charoncharon-license-4.11-20403.x86_64 2/5
Verifying : Charoncharon-axp-4.11-20403.x86_64 3/5
Verifying : Charoncharon-utils-4.11-20403.x86_64 4/5 Verifying : Charoncharon-mtd-4.11-20403.x86_64 4/5

Installed:
aksusbd.i386 0:7.63-1 Charoncharon-axp.x86_64 0:4.11-20403
Charon charon-license.x86_64 0:4.11-20403 Charoncharon-utils.x86_64 0:4.11-20403 Charoncharon-mtd.x86_64 0:4.11-20403

Complete!

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Re-login (as "root") to apply the PATH settings or execute the following command:

# . /etc/profile.d/Charoncharon.sh

If "putty" terrminl emulator is going to be used as an additional option copy the following file to your home directory:

# cp /opt/Charoncharon/putty/sessions/CHTERM-VT100 $HOME/.config/putty/sessions

Info

Note that the "Charoncharon-utils" package has the following dependencies:

ethtool
bridge-utils
net-tools
iproute
NetworkManager

During "Charoncharon-utils" installation using "yum", these packages will be installed automatically if some of them are absent on the host system.

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CHARON-AXP home directory

By default Charon CHARON is installed in the "/opt/Charoncharon" directory. It has the following subdirectories:

Directory	Description
/bin	Contains all the executable files
/cfg	Contains the configuration files templates
/doc	Contains the documentation
/log	Contains the log files
/disks	Contains the disk containers
/drivers	Contains the Charon CHARON drivers

The most important directory at this stage is the "/cfg" directory since it contains template configuration files with examples of typical configuration parameters and comments. We will focus our attention on this subject in the next chapter.

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Create a specific user account named "Charoncharon" for running CharonCHARON:

# useradd -G disk,tape,cdrom,dialout,lock -c "Charon User" -m Charon charon
# passwd Charon charon

Any existing user can also be used to run CharonCHARON. In this case issue the following command to include this existing user into these specific groups:

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Note
The specific account created above does not allow the use of physical consoles "`/dev/tty<N>`" as Charon CHARON consoles. If you plan to map Charon CHARON console to "`/dev/tty<N>`" use only the "root" account for running CharonCHARON.

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Regular HASP USB dongle

If the Charon CHARON license is located on a regular USB dongle, just connect it to the host USB port.

Note
If the Charon CHARON host is accessed remotely, please note that regular HASP licenses cannot be displayed and used to start a Charon CHARON virtual machine. As a workaround it is possible to install Charon CHARON as a daemon (service). This procedure will be described later.

Network HASP USB dongle

If the Charon CHARON license is a network license (red USB dongle), it is possible either to connect it to the host USB port (to use it locally and provide it to other hosts on the local network at the same time) or to install it on a local network "license server" for remote access from this particular host.

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Copy the aksusbd-7.63-1.i386.rpm and Charoncharon-license-4.9-<build>.<OS identifier>.x86_64.rpm files (see above) to the server, for example to "/tmp".
Login as "root" on the server.
Switch to that directory.
Install the copied files using "yum".
Example:
# cd /tmp
# yum install aksusbd* Charoncharon-license-*

Connect the network HASP dongle to one of the server USB ports.

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Software license

If the Charon CHARON license is a software license (SL), it is installed on the host using the following procedure:

Run the hasp_srm_view utility in the following way to get the host fingerprint file ("my_host.c2v" in this example):
# hasp_srm_view -fgp my_host.c2v
Send the resulting file to StromasysSTROMASYS. In return Stromasys STROMASYS will provide you with a ".v2c" file, for example "your_license.v2c".
Copy the received file to any folder on the Charon CHARON host, invoke the system default web browser and enter the URL http://localhost:1947 to display the "Sentinel Admin Control Center" (ACC) web interface. This interface allows you to view and manage the Charon CHARON licenses.
In the ACC perform the following steps: select Update/Attach from the menu on the left pane then use the Browse button to select the received file and click on the Apply File button to install the license.
Ensure that the software license is now visible in the "Sentinel Keys" section of the ACC.

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License validity verification

To check the Charon CHARON license validity, invoke the hasp_srm_view utility to make sure that the Charon CHARON license is visible and is correct:

Text of the license is displayed correctly by the hasp_srm_view utility, no error messages are shown.
The content of the license looks correct. For example: license number, major and minor versions, minimum and maximum build numbers, CharonCHARON-AXP products and allowed hardware (CharonCHARON-AXP models) should be checked. More details on the license content can be found in the CharonCHARON-AXP Licensing chapter of this Guide.

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# hasp_srm_view

License Manager running at host: dlao.msc.masq
License Manager IP address: 192.168.1.129

HASP Net key detected

The Physical KeyId: 1422726238License Type: License Dongle (Network Capable)
Charon CHARON Sentinel HASP License key section
Reading 4032 bytes

The License Number: 000.msc.sanity.tests
The License KeyId: 1422726238
The Master KeyId: 827774524
Release date: 10-MAR-2020
Release time: 15:15:15
Update number: 1
End User name: MSC
Purchasing Customer name: StromasysSTROMASYS...

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Note

If multiple licenses are available, it is possible to check them using the "-all" parameter with the hasp_srm_view utility in the following way:

# hasp_srm_view -all

It it also possible to display the license content for one specific key using the "-key" parameter and specifying the Key Id (see "# hasp_srm_view -h" for more)

Note
Reminder: If the Charon CHARON host is accessed over a remote connection, please note that regular HASP licenses cannot be displayed and used in this case. As a workaround it is possible to install Charon CHARON as a daemon (service). This procedure will be described later.

Troubleshooting

If the Charon CHARON license content cannot be displayed by the hasp_srm_view utility or it is incorrect, check the license is available and correctly used:

Invoke the system default web browser and enter the URL http://localhost:1947 to display the "Sentinel Admin Control Center" (ACC) web interface.
Click on "Sentinel Keys" link to open the corresponding page.
Make sure that one and only one Charon CHARON HASP or SL license is present.

Problem	Action
No license is displayed	Make sure that all the recommendations above about remote access to the host are fulfilled (if remote access takes place), that the HASP USB key is not broken and its LED indicator is lit (meaning that it is used by the host).
Only one License key / SL is seen and its content is incorrect	Contact Stromasys STROMASYS to request a new license update.
Several License keys / SLs are displayed	Remove all of them except the one provided by Stromasys STROMASYS for the just installed version of CharonCHARON.

Removing licenses can be done by physical disconnection of the corresponding USB HASP keys from the Charon CHARON host and physical disconnection of the network HASP keys from all hosts on the local network (or by disabling remote access to network licenses from the Charon CHARON host - see detailed explanations below).

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Info

It is also possible to leave several licenses available to CharonCHARON-AXP at the same time but in this case they have to be specified in the configuration file.

Example:

set session license_key_id=1877752571

It is also possible to have one "main" and one "backup" license in case the main license becomes unavailable:

set session license_key_id="1877752571,354850588"

CharonCHARON-AXP checks its licenses from time to time starting with the main license. If it becomes unavailable, it attempts to access the backup license.

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Network configuration

In most cases Charon CHARON will use a network. In this case Charon CHARON requires one or more dedicated network interfaces with any other protocols including TCP/IP removed at the host level.

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Login as root and enter "ncu". The following menu will appear:

Interfaces Dedicated to State
---------- ------------ ------------
eth0 host connected to host
eth1 host disconnected from host lo host unmanaged by host virbr0-nic bridge unmanaged by bridge

================================================================== bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces ================================================================== virbr0 8000.5254004608c0 yes virbr0-nic

==================================================================

select action:
1 - Dedicate to CharonCHARON
2 - Release to host
3 - Create Bridge with TAPs
4 - Remove Bridge
5 - Add VLAN
6 - Remove VLAN
7 - Print status
8 - Exit
:> 1

The utility lists the available network interfaces (both physical and virtual) and indicates whether they are dedicated to the host or to Charon CHARON and whether they are currently in use by the host operating system.

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"ncu" offers several options:

Dedicate interface to Charon CHARON (option "1")
Release interface to host (option "2")
Create a bridge between a chosen physical network interface and the Linux virtual network and create a number of virtual network interfaces (option "3")
Remove the Linux virtual network and all the created virtual network interfaces (option "4")
Add VLAN (option "5")
Remove VLAN (option "6")
Print status (option "7") - use it to display status of network interfaces and the menu shown above
Exit (option "8")

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Let's dedicate the interface "eth1" to CharonCHARON-AXP.

Enter "1" then "eth1":

Specify the interface to dedicate to CharonCHARON:eth1
Turning off offloading for eth1.. Please wait

select action:
1 - Dedicate to CharonCHARON
2 - Release to host
3 - Create Bridge with TAPs
4 - Remove Bridge
5 - Add VLAN
6 - Remove VLAN
7 - Print status
8 - Exit

:> 7

Now the interface "eth1" is dedicated to CharonCHARON-AXP:

Interfaces Dedicated to State
---------- ------------ ------------
eth0 host connected to host
eth1 Charon CHARON disconnected from hostlo host unmanaged by host virbr0-nic bridge unmanaged by bridge

================================================================== bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces ================================================================== virbr0 8000.5254004608c0 yes virbr0-nic

==================================================================

select action:
1 - Dedicate to CharonCHARON
2 - Release to host
3 - Create Bridge with TAPs
4 - Remove Bridge
5 - Add VLAN
6 - Remove VLAN
7 - Print status
8 - Exit

:>

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Now "eth1" can be used by CharonCHARON-AXP.

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Manual Configuration

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To choose an interface to be used for Charon CHARON networking, do the following:

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Choose an interface to be used by CharonCHARON, for example "eth1"

Designation of network interface to

...

CHARON

To designate the chosen interface to Charon CHARON open up the file "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethN" (where N is the number of the interface to be used for CharonCHARON, in this case it is "1") and make sure that all the IP-setup related parameters are removed. The file must look like this:

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Determine what additional parameters are currently set to "on" on the host network adapter to be used by Charon CHARON using the following command:

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Reboot the host system
Login as user "Charoncharon"
Verify the offload parameters are effective

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To upgrade an already installed CharonCHARON-AXP kit to a more recent one:

Ensure your license allows you to upgrade to that version. If not, please generate a C2V file and send it to Stromasys STROMASYS for update. See CharonCHARON-AXP for Linux utilities - 'hasp_srm_view' utility
Prepare the new kit RPM files as it is described in "Before installation" and "Distribution preparation" sections.
Stop all running CharonCHARON-AXP instances.
Make sure that no template files (i.e. "es40.cfg.template") have been used for your specific configuration otherwise copy those files to a dedicated folder.
Login as "root" user.
Remove the old CharonCHARON-AXP version as described in the "CharonCHARON-AXP for Linux deinstallation" chapter.
Proceed with the instructions on the new kit installation as described in the "Charon-AXP for Linux installation#Installation 695402677" section.
Install the license for the new CharonCHARON-AXP as described in the "License installation" section.
Start all the CharonCHARON-AXP services stopped at step #3.

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Versions Compared

Old Version 100

New Version 101

Key

Introduction

Hardware Requirements

Number of CPU cores

CPU type and speed

Disk storage

Ethernet adapters

CHARON-AXP home directory

Regular HASP USB dongle

Network HASP USB dongle

Software license

License validity verification

Troubleshooting

Network configuration

Manual Configuration

Designation of network interface to

CHARON

Page Comparison

Versions Compared

Old Version 100

New Version 101

Key

Introduction

Hardware Requirements

Number of CPU cores

CPU type and speed

Disk storage

Ethernet adapters

CHARON-AXP home directory

Regular HASP USB dongle

Network HASP USB dongle

Software license

License validity verification

Troubleshooting

Network configuration

Manual Configuration

Designation of network interface to

CHARON