Tips and Tricks

Table of contents

‘vi’ and 'vim' text editors

Notes:

• When typing text, press <ESC> once finished. In case you’re blocked, press also <ESC> before executing commands described below
• both editors use case sensitive commands

‘gedit’ graphical editor

‘gedit’ is a graphical text editor, users familiar with Windows notepad should not encounter difficulties to use it.

‘nano’ text editor

‘nano’ is a basic text editor, very simple to use and displaying available commands at the bottom of the screen. For example, to leave ‘nano’ , use ^X (press CTRL + X)

How to setup ‘ssh’ trusts between Linux and Tru64

• Generate the key

• Copy the linuxhost.pub file, or use copy/paste, in the /.ssh2 folder on the Tru64 host
  
  
• Define the authorization file:

• Initialize the first ssh connection (answer 'yes' to confirm)

then retry the same command to verify the trust is working.

If an error occurs, you can check and clean the /root/.ssh/known_host file on the Linux host

How to setup ‘ssh’ trusts between Linux and VMS

• Enable SSH on the VMS server:
  
  

  VMS$ SET DEF SYS$LOGIN VMS$ @TCPIP$CONFIG

• Select then:
  • Option 3 - Server components then enable and start service SSH, option 19

  • then Option 2 - Enable & Start service on this node
    
    

    ... * Create a new default server host key? YES: YES      Creating private key file: TCPIP$SSH_DEVICE:TCPIP$SSH.SSH2]HOSTKEY      Creating public key file: TCPIP$SSH_DEVICE:TCPIP$SSH.SSH2]HOSTKEY.PUB ...

• Generate the key on the Linux server and convert it to be readable by VMS
  
  

  Linux# ssh-keygen -t rsa → Do not specify a passphrase Linux# ssh-keygen -e -f /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub > /root/.ssh/linuxserver.pub

• Copy the generated file /root/.ssh/linuxserver.pub (or use copy/paste between putty session for example) to the VMS system in the SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.SSH2] directory
  If this folder does not exist, create it using the following command: $ CREATE /DIRECTORY SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.SSH2]

• On the VMS system add the Linux server key to the authorized keys:
  
  

  VMS$ SET DEF SYS$SYSLOGIN VMS$ SET DEF SYS$SYSROOT:[.SSH2] VMS$ OPEN/WRITE TMP AUTHORIZATION. If the file already exists, using /APPEND instead of /WRITE VMS$ WRITE TMP "KEY LINUXSERVER.PUB" VMS$ CLOSE TMP

  Do not forget the dot at the end of the authorization file name

• Perform some tests (examples)
  Charon server name "charon", vms system name "pluto":
  
  

  charon# ssh system@pluto "show system /noproc" OpenVMS V7.3-2 on node PLUTO 27-SEP-2013 11:50:14.37 Uptime 0 19:20:07

Shutdown guests with Expect tool

Introduction

In case SSH cannot be used to perform clean shutdown of the guests, the "expect" tool can be used to connect to the console, perform the login operation and execute the shutdown command depending on the console status (at login prompt, shell prompt or SRM prompt)

 In this case the password is sent without encryption.

To facilitate use of "expect" for shutdown, an example is provided in the "guest_shutdown.exp" script located in the /opt/charon/utils folder. If you plan to customize the script, you'll have to create a copy and not use it directly as it will be overwritten in case of Toolkit upgrade.

This script can handle the following situations:

• No user connected on the console:
  
  • Expect: "Username: " (VMS) or "login: " (Tru64)
  • Action: An interactive session will be initiated based on <user> and <password> provided in the parameters
• A user is connected on the console:
  
  • Expect: <prompt> provided in the parameters
  • This user must have privileges to perform shutdown as no logout will be issued
  • Action: Depending on the Operating system parameter (see <opsys> below), the shutdown command will be sent
• Console is at SRM prompt:
  
  • Expect: ‘>>>’ (so works with VAX and Alpha with "P00>>>")
  • Action: A 'power off' command will be issued. If the command is not recognized, the F6 key will be sent (this must be enabled within the configuration file). If the F6 key did not stop the emulator, the script will exit with error code 9 meaning you will have to kill the emulator process yourself (see examples in the "/opt/charon/utils/charon_gstart.stop.example" file)

Script usage

Usage:

# path/script <port> <user> <password> <prompt> <opsys>

Parameters:

Example:

Examples are given in the /opt/charon/utils/charon_gstart.stop.example file