Table of Contents
General Description
CHARON-AXP offers a one- (OPA0) or two-port serial console, depending on the specified HP Alpha model.
The AlphaServer DS10, AlphaServer DS10L, AlphaServer DS15, AlphaServer 400, AlphaServer 800, AlphaServer 1000 and AlphaServer 1000A has an additional on-board serial line controller providing a serial line TTA0.
The regular console OPA0 is already preloaded, so you need to specify just its mapping to the host resources, for example:
load physical_serial_line OPA0 line="COM1:" |
In case of the TTA0 console the mapping looks like that:
|
The first line specifies a mapping to some TCP/IP host port, while the second line connects this mapping (TTA0) to the on-board serial line controller having the name "COM2" in CHARON environment.
Refer to this section for details of the mapping.
Parameter | Type | Value |
---|---|---|
rts[<line>] | Text string |
|
dsr[<line>] | Text string |
This parameter is applicable only for line "2" of QUART. |
communication [<line>] | Text string |
|
line[<line>] | Identifier | This parameter is used to connect a particular serial line interface to the controller. See below for details. |
Note that the "line" parameter in the table above is applicable only in the case of QUART.
All the values in this table are case insensitive.
Example:
|
Line 2 of the QUART is the only one which can be used for connecting modems. Therefore, the "DSR"
parameter for that line (i.e. "dsr[2]") is internally set to the appropriate value ("CD") but can be changed from the configuration file. Values for the "rts" and "dsr" parameters for the lines other than 2 are not visible for any applications running on CHARON-AXP.
Mapping Serial line controllers to system resources
Types of serial line mapping
Type | Function |
---|---|
physical_serial_line | This type of mapping associates a COM port on a host system with an emulated HP Alpha serial line controller virtual "line". The COM port can be a physical hardware port or a logical COM port. |
virtual_serial_line | This type of mapping associates a network connection on the host system with an emulated HP Alpha serial line controller virtual "line" |
Example:
load physical_serial_line/chserial OPA0 |
physical_serial_line
Parameter | Type | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
line | Text string | A defined COM port on a host system in the form of "\\.\COMn" Example:
| ||
baud | Numeric | Forces the baud rate of the corresponding COM port to be a specified value. The variety of supported values depends on the underlying physical communication resource (COM port). The most widely used values are: 300, 1200, 9600, 19200, 38400. Example:
| ||
break_on | Text string | Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a HALT command. This parameter works only for the console line (for the one UART line and "line[3]" of QUART). Specify the following values: "Crtl-P", "Break" or "none" ("none" disables triggering a HALT condition). Example:
| ||
stop_on | Text string | Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-AXP to exit. Specify the one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition). Example:
Setting "F6" triggers the STOP condition upon receipt of the " | ||
log | Text string | A string specifying a file name to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where the log files for each individual session will be stored. If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-AXP automatically enables creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-AXP does not create a console log. Examples:
.
|
Example of mapping a console line to a host physical serial line:
|
virtual_serial_line
Parameter | Type | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
host | Text string | A remote host’s IP address or hostname (and optionally a remote TCP/IP port number) for the virtual serial line connection. If omitted, the virtual serial line does not initiate a connection to the remote host and will listen for incoming connection requests. Specify the value in the following form:
If the "<port-no>" is not specified, the virtual serial line uses the TCP/IP port number specified by the "port" parameter (see below). | ||
port | Numeric | The TCP/IP port number for the virtual serial line. A virtual serial line always listens on this port for incoming connection requests. | ||
application | Text string | An application (a terminal emulator is assumed in most cases) to be started on initialization of this serial line emulation. The specified application startup string may contain all required parameters. Example:
In this example the terminal emulator application: "putty" is started with the parameters "-load OPA0" telling it to load a specific saved session named "OPA0", (created separately) from the host registry. The "application" parameter is often combined with a "port" parameter:
| ||
break_on | Text string | Specifies what byte sequences received over a virtual serial line triggers a HALT command. This parameter works only on the console line (for CHARON-AXP it is the only line of UART and "line[3]" of QUART). Specify one of the following values: "Crtl-P", "Break" or "none" to disable triggering a HALT condition. The commands are case insensitive. Example:
| ||
stop_on | Text string | Specifies what byte sequences received over the virtual serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-AXP to exit. Specify one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition). The commands are case insensitive. Example:
| ||
log | Text string | A string specifying the filename to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where log files for each individual session will be stored. If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-AXP automatically enables the creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-AXP does not create any console log. Examples:
|
Example of mapping a console line to an onboard serial line:
|
Notes on "virtual_serial_line" options:
Use the combination of "port" and "host" parameters as follows to connect a 3rd party terminal emulator or similar program.
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TTA0 host="192.168.1.1" port=10000
In this example CHARON-AXP connects to port 10000 of a host with TCP/IP address "192.168.1.1" and at the same time it accepts connections on local port 10000.
It is possible to specify a port on a remote host (note that CHARON always acts as a server). The syntax is:
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TTA0 host="192.168.1.1:20000" port=10000
Note: the examples above are mainly used for inter-CHARON communications. They are used to connect CHARON-AXP to an application that communicates to CHARON-AXP as described below.
Example of two CHARON systems connected to each other:
On host "A":
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXA0 port=5500 host="B" |
On host "B":
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXA0 port=5500 host="A" |
On these two hosts, executing CHARON-VAX, the two TXA0 lines connect to each other, thus creating a "serial" cable between the two emulated VAXes. The sequential order in which the instances of CHARON-AXP are started makes no difference.
Linking serial controller port to host connection
The final step in the CHARON-AXP serial line configuration is the association of each loaded serial port with a CHARON-AXP host connection instance as follows:
set <serial controller instance name> line[<line number>]=<serial line instance name> |
Example:
set quart line[0]=TTA0 |
This command connects the first serial line ("line[0]") of a "QUART" serial line controller to a CHARON-AXP connection instance named "TTA0". As explained earlier, TTA0 may be a virtual serial line connected to a port or a physical serial line connected to a host serial port or a virtual terminal.
In the example below, the command connects the sixth serial line of a previously loaded controller (named "TXA") to "TTA1". "TTA1" could be defined, for example, as a physical serial line connected to COM/COM port:
set TXA line[5]=TTA1 |