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This chapter describes how to set up a basic Charon-SSP instance in Google Cloud.

Contents

Prerequisites

General Prerequisites

To install and configure Charon-SSP in the Google cloud, you need an account on the Google cloud platform.

Licensing

Charon-SSP requires a license to run emulated SPARC systems. For a typical cloud-based installation, there are two different Charon-SSP product variants with two different licensing models (availability may differ depending on cloud environment):

  1. The cloud-specific, prepackaged Charon-SSP AL (Automatic Licensing) image utilizing a public, Stromasys-operated cloud-specific license server.
  2. Charon-SSP VE (Virtual Environment) utilizing a customer-operated, private VE license server in a supported cloud environment. Charon-SSP VE is available as a prepackaged image on some cloud platforms, and in RPM package format for a conventional installation.

Both licensing options are briefly described below. Please contact your Stromasys representative for any questions about product availability and licensing options.

Please note: the user is responsible for any Solaris licensing obligations and has to provide the appropriate licenses


Charon-SSP Automatic Licensing Overview

Not available on Google cloud. This section is for information only.

Charon-SSP AL images with automatic licensing use a specialized Charon-SSP environment. They require a license to run emulated SPARC systems. This license is created automatically upon first launch of the Charon-SSP instance. Please note the following points:

  • The Charon-SSP instance requires Internet access (via public IP address or NAT) for the license mechanism to work. If NAT is used, the gateway must be an instance in the same cloud-environment (the source address must be from the address range of the same cloud provider in which the Charon-SSP host instance runs). The public, Stromasys-operated license servers must be reachable on port 8080. Also, a DNS service must be reachable to resolve the host names of the license servers, or corresponding entries in /etc/hosts must exist. The license server details will be provided by Stromasys for platforms supporting the Charon-SSP AL images.
  • If you change the instance type after first launching the instance and thereby change the number of CPU cores (or if the number of CPU cores is changed by any other method), the license will be invalidated.
  • Some licensing problems or other requirements (e.g., additional CPU cores needed) may make it necessary to move the emulator to a new instance. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to store all relevant emulator data on a separate data volume that can easily be detached from the old instance and attached to a new instance.
  • Should access to the license be lost, there is a grace period of 24 hours. If license access is not restored within this period, the emulator will stop (if a guest system is running at the time, this is the equivalent of disconnecting the power without clean shutdown, i.e., it may lead to loss of data).

Charon-SSP VE Licensing Overview

This licensing option is applicable to prepackaged Charon-SSP VE images on cloud marketplaces and to VE-capable Charon-SSP emulator software installed from RPM packages.

Charon-SSP VE license characteristics

The main characteristics of VE licenses are the following:

  • Software licenses only.
  • Installed on Charon-SSP host or separate license server.
  • Require the Charon-SSP VE license server software (RPM package included in the prepackaged, cloud-specific marketplace Charon-SSP VE image).
  • Require matching Charon-SSP emulator software (preinstalled on the prepackaged, cloud-specific marketplace Charon-SSP VE image).

If supported by the cloud provider, the VE license server instance can be moved to a different subnet, as long as the original instance can be moved. It is also possible to backup and restore (to the same instance) the license server data. However, the following actions will invalidate the license:

  • Changing the number of CPU cores of the license server system.
  • Copying the license server data to a different instance.
  • Seriously damaging the root filesystem of the license server system.
  • Re-installing the license server system.

Charon-SSP VE License Server Communication Requirements

For proper functionality, the system on which the license server runs must be able to communicate with the cloud infrastructure:

  • The metadata server of the cloud environment (169.254.169.254)
  • The host www.googleapis.com

It must also be able to communicate with the client systems using the license. The following ports are used for this communication by default:

  • TCP/8083: must be permitted from the client to the license server to enable the use of the license by the client.
  • TCP/8084: must be permitted by the license server for any system that should access the web interface to display license information.

Please note: in current VE license server versions, the default ports can be changed in the file /opt/license-server/config.ini. Please refer to the VE license server user's guide for details.

Basic License Installation Steps Before an Emulator Can be Started

If there is no VE license server running already, decide on which cloud instance it should run and install the VE License Server package on the selected system. The VE License Server RPM package is included in the prepackaged Charon-SSP VE marketplace images. Alternatively, Stromasys will provide a download location. See Installing the VE License Server Software.

  • If you don't already have a license, contact your Stromasys representative to procure an appropriate license.
  • Log in on your Charon-SSP VE License Server instance.
  • Create a C2V file and send it to the email address Stromasys will provide to you.
  • Install the V2C file you will receive from Stromasys.
  • Configure the emulator instance(s) to use the license server.

Please refer to the VE License Server User's Guide for more information.


GCP Machine Type Prerequisites (Hardware Prerequisites)

By selecting machine type in GCP you select the virtual hardware that will be used for Charon-SSP in GCP. Therefore, the selection of an instance type determines the hardware characteristics of the Charon-SSP virtual host hardware (e.g., how many CPU cores and how much memory your virtual Charon host system will have).

The minimum hardware requirements are described below. To learn about the default settings and how to use the Charon-SSP configuration options to determine the resource allocation, refer to the different configuration sections of the general Charon-SSP User's Guide of your Charon-SSP version (see CHARON-SSP for Linux), in particular, the CPU Configuration section.

The minimum hardware requirements are described below. To learn about the default settings and how to use the Charon-SSP configuration options to determine the resource allocation, refer to the different configuration sections of the general Charon-SSP User's Guide of your Charon-SSP version (see CHARON-SSP for Linux), in particular, the CPU Configuration section.

Please note the following points regarding the sizing guidelines:

  • The sizing guidelines below—in particular regarding number of host CPU cores and host memory—show the minimum requirements.
    Every deployment situation must be reviewed and the actual host sizing has to be adapted as necessary. For example, the number of CPU cores available for I/O must be increased if the guest applications produce a high I/O load. Also, a system with many emulated CPUs is typically able to create a higher I/O load and thus the number of CPU cores available for I/O may have to be increased. In a hyper-threading environment, for best performance, the number of CPU cores (i.e., real/physical CPUs) should be sufficient to fulfill CPU requirements of the active emulators, thus avoiding high-workload threads sharing one physical CPU core.

  • The CPU core allocation for emulated CPUs and CPU cores for I/O processing is determined by the configuration. See CPU Configuration in the general Charon-SSP User's Guide for more information about this and the default allocation of CPU cores for I/O processing.

Important general information:

  • To facilitate a fast transfer of emulator data from one cloud instance to another, it is strongly recommended to store all relevant emulator data on a separate disk volume that can easily be detached from the old instance and attached to a new instance.
  • Please make sure to dimension your instance correctly from the beginning (check the minimum requirements below). The Charon-SSP license for Charon-SSP AL is created when the instance is first launched. Changing later to another instance size/type and thereby changing the number of CPU cores will invalidate the license and thus prevent Charon instances from starting (new instance required). If planning to use the Charon-SSP AL instance in AutoVE mode, be sure to include the AutoVE server information before first launch, otherwise the instance will register with the public license servers (registration only occurs at first launch).
  • The license for Charon-SSP VE is created based on the fingerprint taken on the license server. If the license server is run directly on the emulator host and the emulator host later requires, for example, a change in the number of CPU cores, the license will be invalidated (new license and possibly new instance required). Hence, it is recommended to run the VE license server on a dedicated instance.



GCP Login and New Instance Launch

Logging in to GCP

To log in perform the following steps:

  • Go to https://console.cloud.google.com. You will see the login screen.
  • Enter your login credentials.
  • Upon successful login, a Google cloud dashboard screen will be displayed similar to the example below:

Preparation

Select or Create Project

A project organizes all your Google Cloud resources. To organize all resources for a certain application purpose, you can group them in their own project. So before you start creating resources, select or create the appropriate project.

To select or create a project, select the project list from the top of the Google cloud console window, as shown below:

Either select the correct project or create a new one by clicking on the NEW PROJECT button.


Create VPCs and Subnets for Instance

Important rules for Google cloud instances with respect to network interfaces:

  • Interfaces can only be added during instance creation.
  • Each network interface configured in a single instance must be attached to a different VPC network.
  • The additional VPC networks that the multiple interfaces will attach to must exist before an instance is created. See Using VPC Networks for instructions on creating additional VPC networks.
  • You cannot delete a network interface without deleting the instance.
  • IP forwarding can only be enabled when the instance is created.
  • A VPC network has a default transmission unit (MTU) of 1460 bytes for Linux images and Windows Server images. During the creation of a VPC you can choose an alternative MTU size of 1500. Google-provided Linux system images are already automatically configured with the appropriate MTU at start. For custom images (especially, if they do not rely on DHCP), set the MTU to the same value as configured for the VPC to avoid the increased latency and packet overhead caused by fragmentation, or even connectivity problems.

Therefore the required VPCs and subnets must exist before the instance is created.

To create additional VPCs (if required), perform the following steps.


Step 1: Open the VPC network section by clicking on the Navigation menu, then selecting VPC network, and clicking on VPC networks - as illustrated below.

This will open the VPC overview page with the already existing VPCs. If all required VPCs and subnets already exist, continue with creating the new VM instance. Otherwise, continue with step 2.


Step 2: If you need to create a new VPC, click on CREATE VPC NETWORK at the top of the VPC overview list.

This opens the VPC configuration window.


Step 3: Create VPC and subnets.

In the VPC configuration window, enter

  • the VPC name,
  • the subnet name, region and address, and
  • optionally, an alternative MTU size (at the bottom of the window).

Click on Create at the bottom of the window to create the VPC.


The new VPC should appear in the VPC overview list. Selecting the VPC in the overview list will open the detail information window. Example:


Step 4: Create firewall rules for the VPC.

With the detail information open, click on Firewall. This will allow you to define the required firewall rules for the VPC.

An example of a small set of firewall rules that allow incoming SSH and ICMP is shown below:


Creating a New VM Instance

Step 1: Go to the VM instance overview page.

Open the Navigation menu, click on Compute Engine and then on VM Instances as illustrated below:

This will open the list of already existing VM instances.


Step 2: Click on CREATE INSTANCE at the top of the overview list.

This will open the VM creation window as shown below.


Step 3: Configure the basic information of your new VM instance.

In the main configuration window set the following information at a minimum:

  • Name of the instance (permanent setting)
  • Correct Machine family and Machine type to match the Charon-SSP host and guest requirements
  • Boot disk type and size, and the image to use as the operating system (recommended minimum system disk size: 30GB). To change the image for Charon-SSP, press the Change button and select the correct image. If installing a prepackaged marketplace Charon-SSP image, this image must be used. If you plan to install Charon-SSP using RPM packages, use a Linux version supported for Charon-SSP.

The following image illustrates the basic settings:


Step 4: Add you SSH key for remote access to the cloud instance.

Open the advanced settings at the bottom of the VM creation window by clicking on Management, security, disks,... at the bottom of the page:


The advanced settings allow you to create and add disks and network interfaces during the creation of a VM.

Please note: network interfaces can only be added during the creation of a VM instance.

The advanced settings also allow you to add your public SSH key for accessing the VM once started. To do this,

  • select the tab Security in the advanced settings section,
  • paste your public key into the field provided (the username extracted from the key will be displayed).

You can collapse the section again by clicking on Less.


Step 5: Optionally, configure additional NICs and/or IP forwarding

To add an additional network interface, perform the following steps:

  • Open the advanced settings at the bottom of the VM creation window by clicking on Management, security, disks,... at the bottom of the page.
  • Select Networking from the advanced settings section.
  • Click on Add network interface.
  • Select the correct subnet.
  • Set the information about internal and external IP address (static or ephemeral) as required.

After adding all the required information, click on Done.

To enable IP forwarding, perform the following steps:

  • Open the advanced settings at the bottom of the VM creation window by clicking on Management, security, disks,... at the bottom of the page.
  • Select Networking from the advanced settings section.
  • Select the edit option for the default NIC.
  • Enable IP forwarding
  • Click on Done.

Please note: you have to set up a firewall manually when you add additional network interfaces. See Network Management and the GCP documentation for more detail.


Step 6: Create the VM.

Once you filled in all the required data, create the VM by pressing the Create button at the bottom of the page:

This will create the VM, start it and show it in the VM instances list.


Step 7: Verify the settings of the newly created cloud instance.

After successful creation, the new instance will be shown in the VM instances list:

By clicking on it, you will see the details of the cloud instance, as shown in the example below:


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