The following sections describe the different aspects of managing a CHARON-SSP virtual machine.

Creating a Virtual Machine

The first step to running a SPARC-based virtual machine is creating the initial configuration. To do this, follow the steps below.

Steps to Create a Virtual Machine

Step	Descriptions
1.	From the opening splash screen entitled Welcome to CHARON Manager, click the icon labelled Create a New Virtual Machine.
2.	Select the appropriate Hardware Model by clicking the radio button labelled with the SPARC model that most closely matches the system to you wish to run.
3.	Enter a name for the virtual machine into the field labelled, Virtual machine name.
4.	Click the button labelled OK.

The steps above will create a new virtual machine configuration. It will appear in the left hand pane of the management interface labelled with the Virtual machine name you specified. The screenshot below shows the management interface splash screen after the virtual machine LEELA was created.

CHARON-SSP Manager Opening Screen

The initial creation of the virtual machine is very sparse. To complete the configuration it is important to continue on to Modifying the Virtual Machine.

Modifying a Virtual Machine

Whether completing configuration of a newly created virtual machine or adjusting the set up of an existing configuration the Virtual Machine Settings window can be opened by first clicking the name of the virtual machine in the left-hand pane of the management console. This should be followed by clicking the button labelled Edit Virtual Machine.

The example below shows the Virtual Machine Settings window for a virtual Enterprise 450 system.

Edit Virtual Machine Settings Window

The following section describes each part of the Virtual Machine Settings window

For any changes to take effect, the virtual machine must be restarted. However, it is also recommended that before making any configuration changes the virtual machine is shutdown correctly.

Model Configuration

To view or change the virtual machine model, select Model in the Device column of the left hand pane. The current setting will be displayed in the field labelled Hardware Model. To change the model, click the Hardware Model drop-down box and select the appropriate model (see the example below).

Virtual Machine Model Configuration Window

The models currently supported by CHARON-SSP/4M for Linux are:

Sun SPARCstation 20

The models currently supported by CHARON-SSP/4U for Linux are:

Sun Enterprise 450

CPU Configuration

To view or change the current virtual machine CPU configuration, select CPU in the Device column of the left-hand pane.

Virtual Machine CPU Configuration Window

The following table lists each of the fields in the CPU configuration window and describes their operation.

Virtual Machine CPU Configuration Fields

Field Description

Number of CPU

Configure the number of CPUs attached to the virtual machine. Not all virtual SPARC systems support the configuration of multiple CPUs. For those virtual systems that do support multiple CPUs, they can still be restricted by the formula:

Physical CPUs = Virtual CPUs + 1

An attempt to configure more virtual CPUs than allowed will result in the following error message:

Runtime Optimization This option controls the Dynamic Instruction Translation (DIT). This option is on by default.

CPU binding

Assign specific host CPUs to the processing of SPARC instructions.

This field is a comma-delimited list of CPU IDs. Leaving this blank will cause the virtual machine software to assign affinity itself.

I/O binding

Assign specific host CPUs to the processing of virtual machine I/O requests.

This field is a comma-delimited list of CPU IDs. Leaving this blank will cause the virtual machine to assign I/O processing affinity itself.

Reserved I/O CPUs

Reserve a number of CPUs on the host system for the purpose of processing virtual machine I/O requests.

If neither I/O binding and Reserved I/O CPUs are not set, then the virtual machine software will assign 1/3 (rounded down) of the host CPUs to I/O processing.

Memory Configuration

To view or change the current virtual machine memory configuration, select Memory in the Device column of the left-hand pane.

Virtual Machine Memory Configuration Widows

The following table lists each of the fields in the memory configuration window and describes their operation.

Virtual Machine Memory Configuration Fields

Field	Description
Memory for this virtual machine	Set the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. Memory can only be allocated in certain increments. The table below describes the allocation rules for each virtual machine model.
	Virtual Machine Model	Memory Allocation Rules
	Sun SPARCstion 20	64MB, 128MB, 256MB and 512MB.
	Sun Enterprise 450	1 - 32 GB in 1 GB increments.
Memory allocator	This option specifies the memory allocation method used for the virtual machine. The default is malloc.
	Allocator	Description
	malloc	All virtual machine RAM is allocated from system heap.
	hugetlb	All virtual machine RAM is allocate from hugetlbfs.
	mmap	All virtual machine RAM is allocated from file-backed virtual memory via mmap.

SCSI Configuration

To view or change the current virtual machine SCSI configuration, select SCSI in the Device column of the left-hand pane. This will open the SCSI configuration window, shown below.

Virtual Machine SCSI Configuration Window

From this window it is possible to create virtual disk and tape container files as well as attach virtual storage devices (both physical and container files) to the virtual machine.

Creating Container Files

Often it is convenient to use container files for virtual disk and tape devices. The following sections describes creating both disk and tape container files.

Creating a New Virtual Disk Container File

To begin creating a virtual disk container file, click the button labelled Create vdisk in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This will display the Create New Virtual Disk window shown below.

Create New Virtual Disk Window

To create a virtual disk container file, follow the instructions listed below.

Steps for Creating a New Virtual Disk Container File

Step	Description
1.	Specify a name for the virtual disk container file in the field Virtual disk name.
2.	Select the location on the host file system for the container file by clicking the button Location and navigating to the correct path.
3.	Select the virtual disk type from the drop-down list Virtual disk type. If specifying the type of Custom, enter the container file size as a number of 512 byte blocks at the field Block number. If selecting an existing Virtual disk type the Block number field will be updated to match that model.
4.	Click the button labelled Create to generate the virtual disk container file. Depending on the size of the container file, this may take some time.

Creating a New Virtual Tape Container File

To begin creating a virtual tape container file, click the button labelled Create vtape in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This will display the Create New Virtual Tape window shown below.

Create New Virtual Tape Windows

To create a virtual tape container file, follow the instructions listed below.

Steps for Creating a New Virtual Tape Container File

Step	Description
1.	Specify a name for the virtual tape container file in the field Virtual tape name
2.	Select the location on the host file system for the container file by clicking the button Location and navigating to the correct path.
3.	Specify the size for the virtual tape file in megabytes (MB) in the field Tape size.
4.	Click the button labelled Create to generate the virtual tape container file. Depending on the size of the container file, this may take some time.

Add/Edit Virtual SCSI Device

To add a new virtual disk device click the button labelled Add... To adjust an existing virtual disk device, select it from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Edit.... In both cases a widow similar to the one below will pop up to further configure the virtual disk device.

Add/Edit Virtual Disk Device Window (CHARON-SSP/4M shown)

The following table lists each of the fields in the Add/Edit SCSI Device configuration window and describes their operation.

Add/Edit Virtual Disk Device Configuration Fields

Field	Description
SCSI device type	Drop-down list of configurable device types. The table below describes the available device types:
	SCSI device type	Description
	Virtual Disk	Virtual disk device backed by a container file.
	Virtual CDROM	Virtual CDROM device, backed by a container file.
	Virtual Tape	Virtual tape device backed by a container file.
	Physical Disk	Virtual disk device connected to a host-attached physical disk device.
	Physical CDROM	Virtual CDROM device connected to a host-attached physical optical drive.
	Physical Tape	Virtual tape device connected to a host-attached physical tape drive.
SCSI bus	Specify either the Primary SCSI Bus and the External SCSI Bus on CHARON-SSP/4M virtual machines only.
SCSI ID	SCSI device identification number. For CHARON-SSP/4U-based virtual machines, acceptable values are a 3-bit narrow SCSI device ID between 0 and 7. For CHARON-SSP/4M-based virtual machines, acceptable values are a 4-bit wide SCSI device ID between 0 and 15. In all cases the SCSI device ID 7 is reserved for the SCSI bus controller and cannot be used for a user configurable SCSI device.
SCSI device path	Click the path to specify the location of the virtual SCSI device. The table below lists example device paths depending on the setting of the SCSI device type option.
	SCSI Device Type	Example SCSI Device Path
	Virtual Disk	`/usr/local/vm/lela/scsi0.vdisk`
	Virtual CDROM	`/usr/local/share/iso/sunos_4.1.4.iso`
	Virtual Tape	`/usr/local/vm/lela/scsi1.vtape`
	Physical Disk	`/dev/sda`
	Physical CDROM	`/dev/sg1`
	Physical Tape	`/dev/st0`

Removing a Virtual Storage Device

To remove a virtual storage device, select the device in the Virtual Machine Settings SCSI configuration window, then click the button labelled Remove. The device will be removed immediately and the management console does not ask for confirmation.

If the virtual SCSI storage device is attached to a container file the file itself is not removed when the configuration is.

TTYA Configuration

To view or change the current virtual machine console configuration, select TTYA in the Device column of the left-hand pane. This will open the TTYA configuration window, shown below. In this example the console is disabled.

Virtual Machine TTYA Configuration Window

It is possible to configure the virtual console device in one of three ways by selecting one of three options described below from the drop-down list labelled Type.

Virtual Machine Console Types

Type	Description
TCP	Configure the console device as a network device.
Physical	Configure the console device as physical terminal directly attached to the host system.
Disable	Disable the virtual console device entirely.

The following sections describe the specific configuration details of the physical and network consoles.

Physical Console Device

The image below shows the physical console device configuration window.

Virtual Machine TTYA Physical Device Configuration Window

The only option for the physical terminal is Device. This is a drop-down list of all directly attached serial ports available on the host system.

Network Console Device

The image below shows the network console device configuration window.

Virtual Machine TTYA Network Device Configuration Window

The following table lists each of the fields in the network console device configuration window and describes their operation.

Virtual Machine TTYA Network Device Configuration Fields

Field

Description

Port

This option specifies the TCP/IP port to user when listening for incoming console client connections.

A different port must be specified for each network console or serial port. Using a port that is already in use will result in the following error messages in the virtual machine log file.

Console

Specify in which way the network console will be viewed.

Console

Description

Built-in

The built-in console is displayed and accessible from the Console tab in the CHARON-AXP/SMA Manager.

External

An external network console device allows an external client (e.g. a telnet client) to attach to the port and interact with the virtual console device.

TTYB Configuration

To view or change the virtual machine TTYB configuration, select TTYB in the Device column of the left-hand pane.

The virtual TTYB serial device can be configured as both a physical or network connected device. The configuration of this device is very similar to TTYA. For further details related to configuring this device, consult the section TTYA Configuration.

Ethernet Configuration

To view or change the virtual machine Ethernet configuration, select Ethernet in the Device column of the left-hand pane.

Virtual Machine Ethernet Configuration Window

To remove an existing virtual Ethernet adapter, select the adapter from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Remove...

To create a virtual network, click the button labelled Create Virtual Network. For further details on creating, changing and removing a virtual network ,see the section Managing Virtual Networks.

To add a new virtual Ethernet adapter click the button labelled Add... To adjust an existing virtual Ethernet adapter, select it from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Edit.... In both cases a widow similar to the one below will pop up to further configure the virtual Ethernet device.

Add/Edit Ethernet Adapter Window

The following table lists each of the fields in the Add/Edit Ethernet Adapter configuration window and describes their operation.

Virtual Ethernet Configuration Fields

Field	Description
Interface	Select the host attached Ethernet device to be connected to the virtual device. This field is a drop-down list of all the network adapters available on the host system.
Set MAC Address	To force the MAC address of the virtual Ethernet device to a specific value, select the checkbox and enter the address as size groups of two character hexadecimal digits, separated by a colon, e.g. 08:00:2b:aa:bb:cc. This option can be useful in the case where licensing is tied to a network adapter MAC address.

Log Configuration

To view or change the virtual machine logging configuration, select Log in the Device column of the left-hand pane.

Virtual Machine Log Configuration Windows

The following table lists each of the fields in the log configuration window and describes their operation.

Virtual Machine Logging Configuration Fields

Field	Description
Log path	Specify the path name for the log file.
Severity	Set the minimum level of messages that should be reported. Legal values are debug, info, warning, error and fatal. The default is info.
Output to	Indicate where virtual machine logging information should be written to. The default is file.
	Option	Description
	file	Output virtual machine logging information only to the file configured in Log path.
	console	Output virtual machine logging information only to the virtual machine console.
	all	Output virtual machine logging information to both the file configured in Log path and the virtual machine console.

Renaming a Virtual Machine

To rename a virtual machine, follow the steps shown below.

Renaming a Virtual Machine

Step	Description
1.	Click the virtual machine to rename in the left hand pane.
2.	Take note of the name of the configuration file in the field Config file. This will be needed later in step 5.
3.	Right-click the virtual machine name and select Remove VM from the List. This action will not ask for any confirmation and the virtual machine will be immediately removed from the list.
4.	Click the icon labelled Open a Virtual Machine on the main management console splash screen.
5.	A new window labelled Open Virtual Machine will appear. To continue: Click the icon labelled Config file name Navigate to configuration file saved from step 2 and click the button labelled Open.
6.	Enter the new name of the virtual machine in the field labelled New VM name.
7.	Click the button labelled Open.

There is no confirmation and the newly renamed virtual machine will appear in the left-hand pane.

This process does not rename the configuration file, container files, log files or any other associated files. It simply changes the name of the virtual machine as it appears in the list.

Removing a Virtual Machine

The complete removal of a virtual machine must be performed in a number of steps. Each of these steps is detailed below.

Steps to Remove a Virtual Machine

Step	Description
1.	Click the name of the virtual machine that is to be removed in the left hand pane of the management console.
2.	Click the button labelled Edit Virtual Machine.
3.	You will be presented with the Virtual Machine Settings window. From here, click on the SCSI Device configuration in the left-hand pane. If any of the SCSI devices are container files, take note of their locations. In the example below, the devices SCSI 0 and SCSI 6 are container files.
4.	Click the button labelled Cancel to leave the Virtual Machine Settings window.
5.	Right-click the name of the virtual machine in the left hand pane of the management console. Select Delete VM from Disk. The management console does not confirm this action and the configuration and log files are immediately deleted.
6.	Any container files (virtual disk or tape) that were part of the configuration are still present on the system. These should have been noted in step 3. To remove them, either connect to the remote system using SSH or if connected to the console of a CHARON-SSP Virtual Environment system, press Ctrl+WinKey+F12 to open the shell. Navigate to the appropriate path and remove the container files.

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Managing Virtual Machines