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Charon-AXP


Networking

Jul 18, 2018

Table of Contents

 

General description

CHARON-AXP supports emulation of the following network adapters:

  • DE435

  • DE450

  • DE500AA

  • DE500BA

  • DE602

  • DE602AA

Each of them is a PCI Ethernet adapter based on the DEC21040 (DE435, DE450, DE500AA and DE500BA) and the Intel i8255x (DE602 and DE602AA) PCI Ethernet adapter chips for the HP Alpha.

CHARON-AXP maps the virtual adapter to a dedicated Ethernet adapter in the Linux host system.

All the emulated controllers are loaded and configured in the same way.

 The Ethernet adapter in the Linux host system must support dynamic changes of its MAC address (i.e. no reboot of the host system is required to change the MAC address), which is the case with nearly all modern Ethernet adapters.

 By default the PCI Ethernet adapters use first available PCI slot. If instead some particular slot is needed, refer to this section for details of specific placement of PCI peripherals on CHARON-AXP PCI bus.

 Network booting is not currently supported.

Configuration steps

To configure CHARON-AXP networking, follow these 3 steps:

  1. Load network adapter (if required)

    Use the "load" command as shown below.

    Example:

     By default each loaded virtual network adapter uses first available PCI slot. If instead some particular slot is neded, refer to this section for details of specific placement of PCI peripherals on CHARON-AXP PCI bus.

  2. Load "packet_port" or "tap_port" 

    Load "packet_port" or "tap_port" to connect network adapter to the host hardware network card (or to a virtual network interface).

    Example:

  3. Connect the loaded "packet_port" ("tap_port") to the loaded virtual network adapter

    Connect the network adapter to the "packet_port" ("tap_port") by setting the interface name.

    Example:

The interface name can be either "(disabled)" for a disabled interface or "<network interface name>"

Examples:

 

The AlphaServer DS15 and DS25 contain two built-in PCI Ethernet adapters. Models and names (EI* or EW*) of them depend on configuration addon. Choose one of the two or none, but not both. The first instantiates onboard network interfaces as EIA and EWA. While the second - EWA and EWB (enabled by default for backward compatibility)

Example:

It could be necessary to specify the path to the .icfg file if you use your own configuration file using the "include /opt/charon/cfg/ds25-onboard-nics-ew.icfg" syntax.

 

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Configuration parameters

Each virtual network controller has the following parameters that are specified with the "set" command:

interface

Parameter

interface

Type

Text String

Value

Name of the corresponding instance of the "packet_port" or "tap_port" component

station_address

Parameter

station_address

Type

Text String

Value

The "station_address" provides the ability to configure the adapter’s permanent address. By default the adapter’s permanent address is read from the host system’s NIC.

Format:

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

or

XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Example:

set EWA station_address="AF:01:AC:78:1B:CC"


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