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Parameter license_key_id 

Optional parameter for HASP licenses, mandatory for VE licenses.

Insert excerpt
Initial Emulator License Configuration
Initial Emulator License Configuration
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Parameter Use for HASP Licenses

There can be several license_key_id parameters in this section. They define a prioritized list of license keys. The first entry has the highest priority. If no key with this ID is available, the next key in the list will be tried. If a higher priority key becomes available, the emulator will switch to this license at the next periodic license check.

Syntax:

license_key_id "key-id-prio1"

...

Optional parameter for HASP licensing. There can be several license_id parameters in this section. They define a prioritized list of product license IDs. The first entry has the highest priority. If no key with this product license ID is available, the next product license ID in the list will be attempted. If a higher priority license becomes available, the emulator will switch to this license at the next periodic license check.

Syntax:

license_id "lic-id-prio1"

...

Network Card Configuration

General information


Excerpt
nameNICGeneral

The emulated Ethernet interfaces of Charon-PAR can be linked either to a

  • physical host interface,
  • a TAP interface connected to a virtual bridge on the host, or
  • (

...

  • since Charon-PAR 3.0.9) a MACVTAP interface linked to a physical NIC on the host.

Notes for

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physical interfaces:

...

  • If used directly as a guest interface, offloading parameters must be turned off using the initialization command parameter in the configuration file.
  • In cloud environments, the necessary interface settings are not always reflected correctly on the cloud-provided NICs. For such installation settings a MACVTAP interface can be used to provide a dedicated connection without connecting the emulator directly to the physical interface.

Notes for TAP interfaces:

  • A TAP interface can either be created by the user or will be created automatically by the emulator if it does not already exist.
  • For automatically created TAP interfaces, the user can specify a name or let the emulator select a name.
  • A automatically created TAP interface is not automatically added to a bridge, this must be configured via the initialize_command (see the Ethernet Configuration Parameter table below).
  • An automatically created TAP interface is deleted automatically upon emulator stop.
  • If used in a cloud environment, only internal virtual bridges (no connection to the cloud LAN) are supported.

Notes for

...

MACVTAP interfaces:

  • Introduces a transparent bridge interface associated with on physical NIC on the host, and provides a dedicated interface to the emulator.
  • Provides an abstraction layer between physical NIC and emulator.
  • Physical interface requires no changes in the offloading configuration.
  • Fragmentation is performed by Linux on the MACVTAP interface. Jumbo frames on the physical interface will not cause problems.
  • Uses same MAC address as the physical interface.
  • Suited for associating a dedicated host Ethernet interface to the emulator in cloud environments.

Notes for network configurations on VMware:

  • ESXi has configuration parameters that improve security but may block certain emulator NIC configurations.
  • One configuration option allows or blocks promiscuous mode (the default mode of operation for Charon-PAR guest NICs).
  • Other configuration options allow or block the change of a MAC address or the use of a different, additional MAC address on the same NIC (MAC address changes, Forged transmits).

By default, emulated models have one Ethernet device. Depending on the model, more Ethernet devices can be added.

A guest HP-UX system will perceive the network card as a 10/100 Mbit/s controller running at 10 Mbit/s half-duplex. If the user tries to change this setting using SAM or the lanadmin command, the command will be accepted but the displayed interface settings will not change.  However, the throughput of the emulated network card depends on the combination of network performance, physical network card characteristics, host system and guest system performance - it is not tied to the displayed interface settings. So the actual throughput will be what can be achieved depending on the conditions listed above.

Ethernet Card Device Names

...

The emulated network devices

  • DE 500 PCI based cards (for 64-bit systems), and

  • LASI-82596 cards (for the 32-bit system)

do not support Jumbo frames. For physical interfaces, this feature must be disabled in the emulator configuration (together with any other offloading parameters) using the initialize_command parameter.


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Ethernet Card Device Names

Names on 64-bit systems:

The name of the Ethernet interface in the emulator configuration file has the format EWxn with the following definitions:

...

  • Model 720: system.lan0.card
  • Model B132L: gsc.lasi.lan.card

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Ethernet Configuration Parameters

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ParameterValues
mapping_mode

Possible values:

  • RAW: the emulated Ethernet card is mapped to a physical interface on the Charon host that is dedicated to the Charon guest system. This setting is the default value.
  • TAP: the emulated Ethernet card is mapped to a TAP device on the Charon host. If the parameter iface is not set or the specified interface does not exist, it is created by the emulator.
  • MACVTAP: links the emulated NIC to a physical NIC on the host via an automatically configured TAP interface. Different from a  bridge, it allows using the same MAC as the host NIC when used in passthrough mode. This makes it suitable for cloud environments. MACVTAP mode is planned for requires at least Charon-PAR version 3.0.9.
  • DUMMY: presents a network interface without any actual network connectivity to the guest system. All other Ethernet parameters are ignored if this parameter is set.
    It will be set automatically, if
    • iface="dummy",
    • or iface="" and mapping_mode="RAW".
iface

Specifies the name of the host interface mapped to the emulated interface.

For mapping_mode="RAW" or "MACVTAP": this parameter must be set to an interface dedicated to the emulator.

For mapping_mode="TAP": the parameter can be

  • empty: the emulator will choose a name for the TAP interface and create it automatically at startup (and delete it when stopped).
  • name of non-existing TAP interface: the emulator will create the interface automatically at startup (and delete it when stopped).
  • name of an existing TAP interface: the emulator will use this interface.

For any mapping_mode: the value dummy will cause the emulator to present a dummy NIC to the guest system.

Upon emulator start, Charon-PAR will set a variable IFACE to contain the interface name. This variable can then be used in the initialization command to refer to the interface name.

macaddr

Can be set to override the default (same as host interface) MAC address of the interface. By default, when using if this parameter is used together with mapping_mode RAW, the interface is put into promiscuous mode, and the original MAC address of the interface is not overwritten.
If the legacy_mode is configured for the interface, it the interface is not set into promiscuous mode, and the MAC address of the corresponding host NIC is changed to the configured address. The original MAC address is restored upon emulator exit.
The format of the MAC address is: XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX where X is a hexadecimal number.

Please note: the above behavior is new starting with version 3.0.1 build 21.500. In older versions, when the MAC address was changed, it was not reset automatically when the emulator was stopped.

initialize_command

Command(s) to initialize the host interface for use with the Charon emulator.

  • For physical interfaces (RAW): all offload parameters active on the interface should be turned off, as shown by the example in the configuration file template.
  • For TAP interfaces: the TAP interface should be activated, if needed, and added to the appropriate bridge interface (example: "ip link set $IFACE up; ip link set $IFACE master br0"); the exact configuration depends on the customer requirements.
The
  • Not needed if a MACVTAP interface is used.

The variable IFACE is set by the emulator and defined automatically for the execution of the initialization command.

adapter_mode

Defines the speed and duplex settings of the interface that are reported to the guest system.

Possible values: auto, 10BaseT-HD, 10BaseT-FD, 100BaseT-HD, 100BaseT-FD
Default: 100BaseT-FD

Parameter (cont'd)Values
legacy_mode

New starting with version 3.0.1 build 21.500. Only applicable to mapping_mode RAW

. PA64 uses a physical network adapter in promiscuous mode by default. This parameter allows to change the mode to non-promiscuous.

with a manually configured MAC address.

Possible values:

  • true - non-promiscuous mode; if a custom MAC address was set, it will be set on the physical NIC during emulator operation and reset to the burned-in MAC address when the emulator stops.
  • false - promiscuous mode; if a custom MAC address was set, it will not be be set on the physical NIC (not required for the guest communication due to promiscuous mode)

Default: false

pkg_dumpCan be used to enable a packet dump to the log file.
Possible values: true or false
Default: false
rx_fifo_sizeCan be used to set the size of the RX FIFO buffer (in KB). Do not change unless advised to do so by Stromasys support.
Possible values: 0, or 16 to 1024
Default: 0 = disabled
ignore_tx_start_errorPossible values: true or false
Default: true
By default, this parameter enables a workaround for DMA failures at the adapter startup. If needed, the workaround can be disabled by setting the parameter to false. Introduced by build 3.0.6-22001.


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Logging configuration

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Insert excerpt
Configuring SuperIO Devices
Configuring SuperIO Devices
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Other Parameters

Parameter system.do_timer_correction

If the system time of the emulated system deviates too much from the correct time, it can cause application problems in the emulated system. If this cannot be solved by other means (e.g., NTP), the parameter described here can be used to adjust the system time of the emulated system based on the host system's NTP adjusted time.

Syntax:

...

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Other Parameters

Parameter system.do_timer_correction

If the system time of the emulated system deviates too much from the correct time, it can cause application problems in the emulated system. If this cannot be solved by other means (e.g., NTP), the parameter described here can be used to adjust the system time of the emulated system based on the host system's NTP adjusted time.

Syntax:

system.do_timer_correction = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, no time correction will take place.
If set to true, the time of the emulated system will be corrected as described above.

Default: false

Parameter fma_check

Charon-PAR requires a host CPU that supports the FMA capability. Normally, an emulator will not run when trying to start it on a CPU without the required capabilities. 

This parameter allows you to disable the FMA check. However, this may lead to unexpected problems with the guest operating system.

Please note: Do not use this parameter if you run PA9 instances. For PA3 instances, use the configuration option at your own risk.

Syntax:

fma_check = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, Charon-PAR will not check the FMA support of the host CPU.

Default: the check is enabled.

Parameters system.stop_on_halt and system.stop_on_halt_timeout

These parameters are applicable to emulated systems in which a HP-UX guest operating system runs.

When HP-UX is shut down with the shutdown -h command, the guest system will be halted. By default, the emulated system will be powered off automatically when a halt is detected (that is, the Charon-PAR process will be stopped).

Depending on the Charon-PAR version one of the following two parameters can be used to influence this behavior.

Charon-PAR Versions 3.0.5 to 3.0.12 (system.stop_on_halt)

The system.stop_on_halt parameter has the following syntax:

Syntax:

system.stop_on_halt = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, no time correction will take place.
If set to true, the time of the emulated system will be corrected as described above.

Default: false

Parameter fma_check

Charon-PAR requires a host CPU that supports the FMA capability. Normally, an emulator will not run when trying to start it on a CPU without the required capabilities. 

This parameter allows you to disable the FMA check. However, this may lead to unexpected problems with the guest operating system.

Please note: Do not use this parameter if you run PA9 instances. For PA3 instances, use the configuration option at your own risk.

Syntax:

fma_check = false | true

Parameters:

If set to falseCharon-PAR will not stop the emulated system automatically after the guest operating system has been halted. The emulator must be stopped from the Charon-PAR console (at the pa9-64> or pa9-32> prompt).

Default: true. the emulated system will be stopped automatically after the HP-UX guest operating system has been halted.

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Charon-PAR Versions 3.0.13 and Higher (system.stop_on_halt_timeout)

The system.stop_on_halt_timeout parameter has the following syntax:

Syntax:

system.stop_on_halt_timeout = <number-of-seconds>

Parameter:

If number-of-seconds is set to 0, Charon-PAR will not check the FMA support of the host CPU.

Default: the check is enabled.

Parameter system.stop_on_halt

...

stop the emulated system automatically after the HP-UX guest operating system has been halted. The emulator must be stopped from the Charon-PAR console (at the pa9-64> or pa9-32> prompt).

If number-of-seconds is set to a value higher than 0, Charon-PAR will stop the emulated system automatically after the HP-UX guest operating system

...

has been halted using a timeout corresponding to the specified number of seconds.

This parameter has no default value. To restore the default behavior of the system, comment out or remove the parameter from the emulator configuration file.

Parameter system.do_affinity

If enabled, the emulator will calculate a CPU affinity mask based on the host system and the emulator configuration. The affinity mask shows which CPUs will be used for emulated CPUs and which for I/O.

Syntax:

system.stopdo_on_halt affinity = false | true

Parameters:

true

Parameters:

Default: false. The emulator will not follow any preferred host CPU affinity settings.

If set to false true, Charon-PAR will not stop the emulated system automatically after the guest operating system has been halted. The emulator must be stopped from the Charon-PAR console (at the pa9-64> or pa9-32> prompt).Default: true. the emulated system will be stopped automatically after the guest operating system has been haltedwill calculate a hexadecimal affinity mask according to which emulated CPU and I/O threads will be distributed across the Charon host CPUs. The calculated mask is shown in the emulator log file.

Every bit in the calculated affinity mask corresponds to one host CPU (counting from 0). For example: 00000001 corresponds to to CPU 0, 00000003 corresponds to CPU 0 and 1.

The CPUs that can be used by the emulator can be limited by starting the emulator with an explicit affinity mask defined by the taskset command.
Example: # taskset 2f /opt/charon/bin/charon-par -f myconfigfile.cfg
This would set the affinity mask such that the emulator would only use CPUs 0-3 and 5. If do_affinity is enabled, the automatic calculation will be restricted to the CPUs allowed by the taskset command.

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