Table of contents

Installation

The tools are provided in a tar file that must be extracted into the /opt/charon/utils folder.

If the folder does not exist, by default created at Charon installation, create it and copy the tar file in this directory. In the example below, we assume the tar file was downloaded in the /charon folder:
# mkdir -p /opt/charon/utils
# cp /charon/charon_linux_toolkit.V1.54.tar /opt/charon/utils
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Extract the files from the tar file to the Charon installation directory, subdirectory ‘utils’
# cd /opt/charon/utils
# tar –xf charon_linux_toolkit.V1.54.tar
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Execute the installation script:
# ./menusetup
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The setup will check first your terminal settings, if set to VT100 you will not be able to continue until you set the TERM value to VT200, dtterm or xterm (see how to here: Configuration)

Mandatory and recommended packages installation will be checked.
- If some mandatory packages are missing you will not be able to continue.
- If some recommended packages are missing, installation will continue. Installation of these packages can be done later if needed

If 'telnet' is installed, you will be prompted to force the mode to character to avoid some input issues while connected to the guests consoles

The 'menu', 'logtail', 'logview' and 'vmlist' aliases will be created. They will be the commands you'll use to access the menu or to view virtual machines states and log files.

Preferences can be defined during the setup or later, they are related to the default editors used with text and graphical user interfaces, Out Of Memory (OOM) Killer settings and continuous log view when starting a guest (virtual machine)

Recurring jobs will be added in the crontab file:
- if the crontab file does not exist, it will be automatically filled
- if it already exists, you will be prompted to update it via the selected editor: a check will be performed and the missing entries will be added

Alerts parameters will now have to be filled (see Alerts management chapter for more if needed)
- Select between HTML or pure TEXT emails
- Mail recipients list (used for alerts, not for sending files like log and configuration files for example)
- Mail sender (can be used to change the displayed name of the sender)
- Customize emails footer: if needed, add here your disclaimer, information on the CHARON server or any information you think useful
- Enable/disable wall alert messages
- Install or update the alert script. It can be customized later, in this case it is recommended to do this once the virtual machines are installed
- Select the alert level from guests log files: 0 = none, 1 = informational+warning+error entries, 2 = warning+error entries (default), 3 = error entries only
- View alerts if any
- Enable or disable license expiration alerts from guests logs: 1 alert per hour if enabled, 1 (default) or more alerts per day as defined per the recursive jobs settings
- The alerts simulator can be used to send all the know alerts via email (for checks)
  
  Example:
When the setup is completed either log out and login again to define the command aliases or execute the following command:
# . /etc/profile.d/charon_menu.sh

Upgrade

Except if mentioned in the release notes, an upgrade does not require the Charon virtual machines to be stopped

To upgrade the kit, you will need to:

read the release notes available here: Charon-AXP/VAX Linux Toolkit - Current version
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copy and extract the files from the tar file to the CHARON installation directory, subdirectory ‘utils'
# cd /opt/charon/utils
# tar –xf charon_linux_toolkit.V1.54.tar
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To install newly defined aliases (logtail, logview, vmlist, ...), please run the following command:
# cd /opt/charon/utils (if not already done)
# ./menusetup -a
then either logout or execute the following command for the changes to take effect:
# . /etc/profile.d/charon_menu.sh
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You can then run the 'menu' command as usual

In case of upgrade from a kit older than 41 on a CentOS 7 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x system, you must first stop all services, including the virtual machines running, and remove the services that were defined using the previous method as described below:

List installed services

# chkconfig --list | grep charon

charon_gstart 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

charon_logchk 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

Remove installed services

# chkconfig --del charon_gstart
# chkconfig --del charon_logchk

Once these services are removed, you can perform a standard kit upgrade

Services will have to be redefined or updated from the 'menu', they will then use the 'systemd' features

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