Table of Contents

General Description
- Parameter
- Examples
Connection
Available commands

General Description

The purpose of the Remote Management Console is to let the emulator trigger actions on the Charon host to properly unload and save a vtape container while the guest operating system is running.

Originally, the tape offline state in Charon-VAX and Charon-AXP was not persistent. An automatic, periodic loading function will bring the tape device online again using the same container. That means that subsequent operations might overwrite the tape container.

To improve this behavior, an initially persistent offline state was introduced that could be configured by providing an "empty tape drive" using a name of .vtape. With this improvement, a virtual tape device will remain offline, until a valid name is provided during the runtime of the emulator. This name can be provided in two ways:

CHARONCP: SCSI devices on OpenVMS only (see "Charon Guest Utilities for OpenVMS" chapter)
Remote Management Console (this section)

However, this first improvement did not allow to return to an "empty tape drive" once a valid name had been provided. Hence, the automatic loading process would once again create the problem of possibly overwriting an existing container. This problem triggered an improvement that will allow a persistent offline state. The persistent offline state is configured on platforms where it is supported by adding a new keyword to the removable parameter as shown in the example below from a configuration file:

set PKA container[0] = ".vtape" removable = "noauto"

With this configuration, a tape device in Charon behaves as follows. When the tape device is put into status offline, it clears the runtime value of the associated container turning it into an "empty tape drive". Any further operations on this tape device are only possible after changing value of the container to a meaningful value and loading the tape. This behavior makes the runtime offline state persistent.

To load the Remote Management Console use the following syntax:

load remote_management_console RMC

Only one Remote Management Console can be set per Charon instance.

Parameter

Parameter

port

Type

Numeric

Value

The TCP/IP port number for the remote management console.

If multiple Charon instances are running on a server, ensure the port number is unique across the platform.

Examples

Example 1:

load remote_management_console RMC port=13000

Example 2:

load remote_management_console RMCset RMC port=13000

Connection

The RMC is reachable via the configured TCP port using (for example) a telnet client.

Notes:

Line mode has to be used (default) and not character mode during telnet connection.
If you use 'putty' to access the RMC, use "Raw" connection type and not "Telnet" and ensure the "Implicit CR in every LF" option in the "Terminal" settings is checked.
If you access from a remote location to the RMC port, please define appropriate firewall rules if necessary.

Example:

Available commands

Short description of the available commands:

Command	Description
help	Usage information as shown in the example above
hello	Currently no user-relevant function
set <name> {<parameter> = <value>}	The set command is used to set a meaningful name for a vtape container. Example: `set PUA container[11] = mytape1.vtape`
show removable	Lists the removable devices configured for the specific emulator instance.
acquire <name> <unit-no>	Brings a vtape online. Example: `acquire pua 11`
release <name> <unit-no>	Brings a vtape offline. If noauto is configured, an empty container name is set. Example: `release pua 11`
show virtual <serial line>	List configured serial lines. If run without parameters, all serial lines will be listed.
disconnect <name> <unit-no>	Disconnect virtual serial line. Example: disconnect com2 0
bye	Disconnect from RMC

Commands cannot be shortened

Example:

1, Okshow removablePUA, 11, offline, ".vtape"PUA, 12, offline, ".vtape"1, Okset PUA container[11] = xxx.vtape1, Okshow removablePUA, 11, offline, "xxx.vtape"PUA, 12, offline, ".vtape"1, Okacquire pua 111, Okshow removablePUA, 11, available, "xxx.vtape"PUA, 12, offline, ".vtape"1, Okrelease pua 111, Okshow removablePUA, 11, offline, "xxx.vtape"PUA, 12, offline, ".vtape"1, Okbye

Future versions may contain additional features to support the automation of the functionality that the Remote Management Console provides.
Currently, if you need support for an automation project, please contact your Stromasys representative or your Stromasys VAR.

Remote Management Console (RMC)