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Table of Contents

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CHARON-AXP symbolic links

Each model of CHARON-AXP has a symbolic link defined to point to the corresponding CHARON executable (see the table below). If the PATH is correctly defined, you can start a virtual machine by specifying the link followed by the configuration file. This is described further.

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Running CHARON-AXP emulators

It is possible to run one or several instances of CHARON-AXP at the same time if your license allows it.

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Please refer to the next chapters for more details concerning CHARON-AXP configuration details.

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Running from the console

Copy the selected configuration template from the "/opt/charon/cfg/" directory to some local file and set the correct privileges to that for the file to be able to edit itedited.

Example:

Now let's execute CHARON Run the virtual machine using this template configuration file:

You will see Below is an example of a normal HP Alpha test sequence, followed by the prompt sign (">>>"):

The next stage can be either installation of a new HP Alpha/VMS system using a distribution provided by HP or data transfer of data from some existing HP Alpha system. These possibilities will be discussed in details in the next chapters.

If for some reason CHARON-AXP refuses to start, please look for files with .log extension (CHARON-AXP log files) located in the directory from which where CHARON-AXP startswas started, open them with an editing tool and analyze their content. In most cases those files contain very helpful information on what may possibly gone went wrong.

To exit from the CHARON-AXP emulator use the following methods:

 Please note that before stopping CHARON-AXP, one must shutdown the operating system running in CHARON-AXP.

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 Please note that before stopping CHARON-AXP, a clean shutdown of the operating system running on the virtual machine has to be performed.

Options for running CHARON-AXP from console

If "-h" of "--help" option is specified when running CHARON-AXP from console, it displays a list of additional available options:

Usage:

  <program-name> [options] [<configuration-file-name>]

Command line options:

  -l,--log <file-name>             - write log to the file (overwrite),
                                     until configuration is loaded;
  -la,--log-append <file-name>     - write log to the file (append),
                                     until configuration is loaded;
  -f,--configuration <file-name>   - read configuration from the file;
  -d,--daemon                      - run detached;
  -h,--help                        - display this text

Note that configuration file must be supplied either as a command line
operand <configuration-file-name> or using '-f' command line option followed
by name of the configuration file.

Options to use with CHARON Manager:

  -a,--alias <alias-name>          - virtual machine alias name;
  -s,--shm-name <shm-name>         - name of shared memory section

The last 2 options are used for running CHARON-AXP in Baremetal environment,

Running as system service (daemon)

It is possible to run CHARON-AXP as a daemon (service). In this case the CHARON-AXP process will be detached from its parent process and from the terminal window in which it runs.

Follow the description below to establish install and run execute CHARON-AXP as a daemon:

Installation and start of CHARON-AXP service

1. Copy the sample script "/opt/charon/bin/charon.service" ( "/opt/charon/bin/charon" for Red Hat  Linux 6.x) to the "/usr/lib/systemd/system/" directory (or to your home directory (for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x)), for example.

   Example:

   Red Hat Linux 6.x	$ cp /opt/charon/bin/charon /my_services/es40_service $ chmod 755 /my_services/es40_service
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux

   7.x and

   /CentOS 7

   .x

   & 8	$ cp /opt/charon/bin/charon.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/es40.service $ chmod 755 /usr/lib/systemd/system/es40.service

   
   

2. Edit the renamed file to replace sample values of the following parameters, for example.

   Example:

   Red Hat Linux 6.x	exec="/opt/charon/bin/es40" prog="my_es40" config="/my_services/es40-service.cfg"
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux

   7.x and

   /CentOS 7

   .x

   & 8	ExecStart=/opt/charon/bin/es40 -d /my_services/es40-service.cfg WorkingDirectory=/my_services

    "my_es40" is a service name in the example above

             

3. Create and edit the configuration file ( "/my_services/es40-service.cfg" in the examples above) the way it was described before and make sure that the following pre-requisites are met:

   • OPA0 must be configured as a virtual port or physical console, not as an operator console, for example:

     load virtual_serial_line

     .

     Example:

     set COM1 alias=OPA0 port=10003 #load operator_console OPA0#set COM1 alias = OPA0 line = (console)

     
     

   • Use only absolute paths to log, toy clock, nvram files and all the other data such as disk images, etc. The names of the references files must be unique too, for example.

     Example:

     ... set session log="/CharonInstances/1st_es40.log" set rom container="/CharonInstances/1st_es40.bin" set toy container="/CharonInstances/1st_es40.dat" set PKA container[0]="/CharonInstances/1st_es40_boot_disk.vdisk" ...

     
     

   • Make sure the same physical devices are not used by other CHARON-AXP daemons , same for and the OPA0 console port number is unique across the CHARON server.
     
     

Once the configuration file is ready run , execute the following commands (from based on the examples above) to install and start CHARON-AXP as a daemon:

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Stopping CHARON-AXP service

To stop a CHARON-AXP daemon, use the following command, for examplecommands.

Example:

Please note that before stopping a CHARON-AXP service, one must  a clean shutdown of the operating system running in CHARON-AXP. 

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on the virtual machine has to be performed.

Removing CHARON-AXP service

To remove a CHARON-AXP daemon use the following commands, for example.

Example:

 Please note that before removing a CHARON-AXP service one must shutdown , a clean shutdown of the operating system running in CHARON-AXP and then stop the corresponding CHARON-AXP service. on the virtual machine has to be performed and the service has to be stopped.

Please refer to the next chapters for more details concerning CHARON-AXP configuration details

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