Table of contents

Introduction

The Charon Log Monitor is a utility that monitors the Charon emulator session log files and that sends alerts in case a warning or error message is detected. It can also send alerts for informational messages when the emulator is started or properly stopped, when a CPU BUGCHECK or a CPU Halted message is detected or even if someone connects or disconnects from the emulator console.

It can also send alerts in case of Charon emulator service state change or if the emulator log file is greater than a specified value.

Alerts can either be an entry added in the Windows Application Events log file, an email or a .BAT or .PS1 custom script.

Prerequisites

• Charon versions before 4.8 are not supported.
• The utility must be started with "Run as Administrator"
• During upgrade, it is possible first attempt to stop the service will fail (due to timeout). If this occurs, just retry stopping the CharonLogMonSVC service and it installation will continue
• Powershell 4.0 minimum, 5.1 recommended*
  To get the update, please open the page:
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/windows-powershell/install/installing-windows-powershell
• .NET Framework 4.6 minimum installed, 4.8 recommended. Installed by default on Windows 10, 11, 2016, 2019 and 2022. For older versions of Windows, this has to be installed manually.
  For more, see:
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/versions-and-dependencies

*: If you installed PowerShell 7, please ensure PowerShell 5.1 is installed (not 4.0)

 The utility has been tested on Windows 10, 11, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 and 2022 with Charon-AXP/VAX/PDP. If it is installed on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2, storing the email account password will not work, use custom script in this case.

Usage

Once installed, by default in "C:\Program Files\CHARON\Charon Log Monitor", you'll get a Charon Log Monitor shortcut on the desktop and in the Windows start menu.

1 - Open the Charon Log Monitor interface

2 - Install the service

3 - Define the settings from the settings tab: what you want to monitor and if you want Windows Application Events to be generated and/or a customer .PS1 or .BAT script to be executed + several other options you can activate

4 - If needed, you can use the Email settings tab to specify who you want to send emails to + from who. If the sender account needs a password, you'll need to click the "Store" button (does not work with PowerShell 4.0, 5.1 only). It is recommended to use the test button to ensure emails are correctly sent.

5 - Go to the Virtual Machines tab, select one virtual machine: mouse hovering displays several information:

Right click on one of them to either enable/disable log monitoring or start/stop the emulator, show the console, edit the .cfg file (if notepad++ is installed, it will use it otherwise it's notepad), open the log file, explore the home directory

Notes:

• double clicking on a virtual machine name opens the latest log file
• double clicking on the Notes box for a virtual machine opens the "Edit notes" option
• a circle icon in the details box means the log file is using the log rotation mechanism. Mouse hovering on this icon show the max file size and rotation period if defined.
• other warning icons can be displayed if:
  • the log counters are enabled or
  • the log file size is greater than the limit specified or
  • the log method is set to overwrite (not recommended) or
  • the configuration file has been updated after the emulator was started (an emulator restart is required for the changes to be taken into account)

HTML email example

Notes

Right clicking anywhere but the virtual machine list box to display About and Release Notes.

Mouse hovering on virtual machines names, buttons and icons displays addtional information and help.

It is also possible to export and import general and email settings for ease of deployment (the email account password will not be exported)