CHARON Service Manager

Conventions

Throughout the document(s) these conventions are followed

Notation	Description
$	The dollar sign in interactive examples indicates an operating system prompt for VMS. The dollar sign can also indicate non superuser prompt for UNIX / Linux.
#	The number sign represents the superuser prompt for UNIX / Linux.
>	The right angle bracket in interactive examples indicates an operating system prompt for Windows command (cmd.exe).
`User input`	Bold monospace type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.
`<path>`	Bold monospace type enclosed by angle brackets indicates command parameters and parameter values.
`Output`	Monospace type in interactive examples, indicates command response output.
[ ]	In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional.
...	In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.
`dsk0`	Italic monospace type, in interactive examples, indicates typed context dependent user input.

The following definitions apply

Term	Description
Host	The system on which the emulator runs, also called the Charon server
Guest	The operating system running on a Charon instance, for example, Tru64 UNIX, OpenVMS, Solaris, MPE or HP-UX

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General Description

Used to manage the CHARON services, including their stopping, starting, removing, tracing its logs and specifics of execution.

To start the "CHARON Service Manager" use the "Start" menu:

It is also possible to start the "CHARON Service Manager" utility from the system tray menu:

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Starting CHARON service

In the main window of the utility, select the target CHARON service ("charon-3100" in our example) and press the "Service" button (labeled with yellow on the screenshot below):

The "Service Management dialog" will appear:

The "Service Management dialog" shows the current status of the selected CHARON service and permits changes to its start up type and to start and stop it. The example screenshot above shows that the service "charon-3100" startup type is "MANUAL" (can be started / stopped only manually) and in the "Stopped" state - these are the default values.

Press the "Start" button to start the service:

CHARON will start and the Service status will be "Started". To stop the service, press the "Stop" button.

It is possible, and often desirable, to configure the selected CHARON service to start when host operating system starts. To enable this capability, select "AUTOMATIC" in the "Startup type" drop-down box and press the "Apply" button:

Note that a certain delay may occur before the Sentinel Run-time process finds the network license on CHARON-VAX/PDP11 host system startup. If the CHARON-VAX/PDP11 service is starting automatically on the host system, it may report a "License not found" error and exit.

This problem can be avoided by specifying "license_key_lookup_retry" parameter in the configuration file:

set session license_key_lookup_retry = "N [, T]"

where:

N - Number of retries looking for license key (or keys)
T - Time between retries in seconds. If not specified 60 seconds is used

Example:

set session license_key_lookup_retry = 5

In this example, if the license key is not found during the initial scan, CHARON-VAX/PDP11 will scan 5 more times, waiting 60 seconds between them before it stops.

See General Settings section for more details.

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Managing CHARON service

To see the execution log of a CHARON service, select the service ("charon-3100" in the example below) and the current log messages will be displayed in the right panel of the utility interface. You may need to scroll up to see startup/previous messages:

To control execution of CHARON services, open the "CHARON Service Manager" utility from the "Start" menu or use the system tray shortcut to manage the services w/o opening the main window of the utility:

Press the right button of the mouse to see a list of the installed CHARON services ("charon-3100" in our example):

Select the Service to see the list of the available operations:

Explanation:

Menu Item	Function
Start	Start CHARON service
Show Console	Show CHARON service console if it has been closed or not active on the automatic service startup
Halt	Halt VAX/PDP11 emulator associated with the selected CHARON service
Reset	Reset the virtual VAX/PDP11 associated with the selected CHARON service
Stop	Stop CHARON service
Show Log	Show execution log of the selected CHARON service

Choose the desired action and click on it.

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Stopping CHARON service

In the main window of the utility, select the target CHARON service ("charon-3100" in our example) and press the "Service" button (labeled with yellow on the screenshot below):

Press the "Stop" button in the resulting dialog box:

The CHARON Service can be Stopped using the shortcut on the Windows Task Bar.

Open up the "CHARON Service Manager" system tray menu, select the service you are going to stop and click on the "Stop" command:

Please note: before stopping the CHARON-VAX/PDP11 service, shutdown the operating system running in CHARON-VAX/PDP11.

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Removing CHARON service

In the main window of the utility select a CHARON service to remove ("charon-3100" in our example) and press the button with an exclamation sign on it:

Confirm removing the selected CHARON service by pressing the "Remove" button:

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Scheduling CHARON service

The "CHARON Service Manager" utility provides a function to set the start and stop date/time for each installed CHARON service.

Select the desired CHARON service and press on the hourglass icon:

In the popup specify the start and the stop date and time for the selected service:

Press "Ok" to apply settings.

Note you will have to perform a clean shutdown of the VAX system before defining the service to be stopped by a scheduled operation

To remove the scheduled event select it and press the "Remove" button.

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Security settings

The security settings informs the CHARON host to lock the desktop after a given amount of time of inactivity.

To enable this function press the "Lock" button:

The following popup will appear:

Specify the desired period of time before locking the session and press the "Ok" button:

Note that the security settings are active only when the "CHARON Service Manager" is running. On exit from the utility the security settings reset.

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Sending problem report

To collect information for a problem report select the service you have issues with and click on the yellow highlighted button as shown below:

Choose the target filename to store the information for STROMASYS customer support and press the "Save" button:

Send the file to the STROMASYS customer support along with a detailed description of the problem.

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Printing the CHARON service log file

To print the CHARON service log file select the target CHARON service and click on the yellow highlighted button as shown below::

Choose the target printer and press the "Ok" button:

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Reviewing the CHARON service configuration

To review the CHARON service configuration select the target CHARON service and click on the yellow highlighted button as shown below:

This utility will display the selected CHARON service configuration:

Press the "Print" button to print it if needed.

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Tracing system resources

The "CHARON Service Manager" has a functionality to trace usage of some system resources in real time viewing.

Click on the yellow highlighted button as shown below:

In the popup it is possible to set the parameters to trace:

Choose the desired parameters to view using the "+" button and watch their values change in real time.

Note that the "Performance Monitor" utility is a standard Windows tool (just included in the CHARON distributive for convenience), so for more information please refer to the Microsoft documentation.

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