Contents

Introduction

This guide is intended for anyone who needs to install, configure, or manage the Stromasys Charon Virtual Environment (VE) license server. A general working knowledge of Linux and its conventions is expected.

VE stands for "Virtual Environment" denoting Charon emulators and the environment in which they run. At the time of writing, the VE license server is supported in selected cloud and VMware environments, and on physical servers.

A VE license server can run in one of two basic modes of operation:

• General VE license server mode: license server for one or more emulator instances. Customers must purchase their license from Stromasys, and use a VE-enabled emulator product. The license is based on the emulator model configuration required and typically valid for a certain period of time (it has an expiration date), or for a defined number of runtime hours.
• AutoVE mode (selected cloud environments only): AutoVE is an extension of the cloud-specific Charon Automatic Licensing (AL) where licensing is configured automatically when the cloud instance is launched. The Charon host instance must be launched from a supported, cloud-specific marketplace image. The customer is billed by the cloud provider, but the AutoVE license server is managed by the customer and part of the customer cloud environment.

This guide covers the Charon VE License Server software. This package contains a license server application that can be installed in customer-specific AWS, OCI, GCP, Azure, IBM, Nutanix and VMware environments, and on physical servers. This licensing option is adapted to the special requirements of virtualized environments and simplifies the process of running Charon emulator products in supported cloud and VMware environments. The license server is managed by the customer.

Please note:

• VE licenses provided by a VE license server require VE-enabled Charon emulator software. This support is available in the following products:
  
  • Charon-SSP (starting with Charon-SSP version 4.2.x)
  • Charon-PAR (starting with Charon-PAR version 3.0.6)
• At the time of writing, AutoVE mode was available for Charon-SSP AL marketplace images version 5.3.8 and above in the following cloud environments: AWS, OCI, GCP, and Azure.
• For a full description of the Charon emulator product configuration and management aspects that are not related to the specifics of the VE license application, please refer to the Charon user's guides of you product and version:
  • Charon-SSP: see the Charon-SSP user's guides.
  • Charon-PAR: see the Charon-PAR user's guides.

For additional information about this product, please contact Stromasys at the regional addresses below or contact your Stromasys VAR. 

Structure of this Document

The document contains the following sections:

• Charon VE License Server Topology: brief overview of license server topologies.
• Installing the VE License Server and the Charon Emulator Packages: installation of the license server software, and installation of the VE-enabled Charon emulator software.
• Installing a License on the VE License Server: steps for requesting and installing a Charon product license on the license server.
• Configuring the Charon Emulator to Use a VE License Server: steps for configuring the Charon emulator to use the VE license server.
• Transferring a License to Another Server: move a license from one license server to another.
• Removing a License from a VE License Server: removing a license from a license server.
• Additional Configuration Options - the config.ini File: additional configuration options to customize communication ports.
• VE License Server Web-based Management GUI: description of the interface and the actions provided by the web-based GUI of the VE license server.
• Operational Information and Logging: information that may be helpful when operating a VE license server. For example, log file locations and samples.
• Updating a VE License: steps for updating a license, for example, when the expiration date approaches.
• Additional Information: supplemental information about installing a Linux cloud instance, about installing and starting the Charon-SSP Manager on a Linux or Windows management system, and about cloud-specific firewall considerations.

Please note:

• Cloud providers may change their management GUI without prior warning. Hence, the screenshots in this document may not always reflect the latest GUI appearance of the cloud provider. However, they will still provide an illustration of the described configuration steps.

• In general, the sample outputs in this document may show different versions than the one documented in this manual, but they are still representative of what a user will see.

Related Documents

• Charon-SSP User's Guides and Release Notes
• Charon-PAR User's Guides and Release Notes