Table of Contents

Description

Manages the Charon virtual machines (guests) defined as services, used to create, delete, start and stop virtual machines on user request or upon system request (Linux server boot & shutdown).

The service works with a guests list containing the emulator executable file name, configuration file and, optionally, the auto_boot on server startup parameter ( at service level, not the same as SRM console level).

• Startup: the virtual machine is executed in detached mode (using ‘-d’ parameter) and then requires the console to be set as virtual serial line.
  • Connection to the console will be performed using telnet on the defined localhost / port. This can also be performed using other utilities like putty. If there is more than one guest on the server, guests are started in parallel.
  • Before the guest starts, the network interfaces used will be checked and all the offload parameters will be set offline.
    
    
• Shutdown: a common shutdown script can be created for guests shutdown. See "Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script" for details.
  
  • If the script does not exist, the virtual machine process is killed without proper guest shutdown. This is the equivalent of a power off on Tru64 or OpenVMS side.
  • If the script exists, it executes the customer defined command lines to perform a proper shutdown (using ‘ssh’, 'rsh' or ‘expect’ for example). If the virtual machine process is still running after execution, the stop operation is considered as failed then the service is killed by the system.

Menu description

• The first part of the menu displays server information: server boot time, number of CPUs and Memory Free / Total.
• This description is valid for all menu options displaying the virtual machines list and for the "vmlist" command line.

• The second part displays the list of virtual machines (guests) managed. Column details: 

  Column	Description
  Configuration File	Configuration file name (full path)
  CPU	Displays the number of CPUs by looking into configuration file settings (set n_of_cpus ...) first then using default value for the selected hardware. If no information is available, "-" is displayed instead. The number of CPUs displayed does represent the number defined in the configuration file or the default number of cpus for this hardware model. The real number of CPUs the virtual machine owns depends on the CHARON server hardware limitations, CHARON licenses and also licenses on the virtual machine side (Tru64 or OpenVMS)
  Memory	Displays the amount of memory defined in the configuration file (if defined). If no information is available, "-" is displayed instead.
  State	Can be either ACTIVE, ACTIVATING, INACTIVE, DEACTIVATING, FAILED or UNKNOWN. If the guest is in ACTIVE state, the service uptime is displayed.

  .

• Depending on settings and virtual machine state, more information can be displayed:

  • Model (emulated)
  • Description
  • Auto-restart settings (feature managed by systemd, described here: How to restart Charon-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure )
  • Start on boot: displays the automatic boot on server startup value, YES or NO. This means the Charon virtual machine will be started but not necessarily booted. To automatically boot the virtual machine on startup, please refer to the Charon-AXP or Charon-VAX users guides and console settings.
  • Service start and/or stop timeouts
  • Stop script - Displays the status of the stop script used to perform a clean shutdown of the guest. Can be:
    • Not found: the script has not been created. If not found, a service stop request will induce a kill of the emulator process
    • To customize: the script exists and a case line has been added for the specified configuration file. It must however be customized with some commands to perform a clean shutdown of the guest (OpenVMS or Tru64 virtual machine).
      For more information and examples, see VM management - Create/Edit guest stop script
    • Case not set : the script exists but does not relate to the specified configuration file. This means it has either been created manually or initialized automatically by the menu and a new guest has been added after initialization.
    • [Using XXX] where XXX can be EXPECT, RSH or SSH: the script exists and a case line has been added for the specified configuration file and it uses the shutdown scripts provided with the kit
    • Customized : a customized script or command lines is/are used
  • Pre-start script if defined (the 3 first lines are displayed)
  • Start/stop date
  • Protected against Out Of Memory Killer (OOM Killer) or not
  • Guest OS response (optional, see Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script / Optional guest display status script)
  • Console port number
  • Log file (full path)
  • If the virtual machine is running and is using Charon-AXP or Charon-VAX version 4.9 minimum, the license status is displayed (license found, communication lost/restored, connection lost/application will stop, license expiration information)
  • Network Interfaces settings with some checks performed. A NIC displayed followed by a number between parenthesis means an issue has been discovered: (1)=NIC does not exist, (2)=NIC is not managed by ncu, (3)=NIC is already used, (4)=NIC has an IP address, (5)=Windows syntax used.
    .

• The third part displays the available options that are detailed in the Menu options chapter further.

Example

Notes:

• The star besides the "ds20 / ds20vms" virtual machine means it has been started using the "vmstart ds20vms" command and next commands lines like vmstop, vmcfg, vmconsole will use this virtual machine if no other one is specified.
• Auto-restart on failure is managed by systemd. This is described here: How to restart Charon-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure.
• "Description" and "Service Timeouts" are managed by systemd. This is described here: VM management - Manage 'systemd' services.
• "Guest OS answer" is based on an optional script performing an ssh connection to the Tru64 system. This is described here: VM management - Create/Edit guest stop script. If the guest OS response returns error code 255, this means Tru64 or OpenVMS system is not booted (still at SRM prompt).

Menu options

• VM management - Update guests list
• VM management - Start/stop guests
• VM management - Connect to guest console
• VM management - Edit configuration files
• VM management - Manage 'systemd' services
• VM management - View latest guest log file
• VM management - Create/Edit guest stop script
• VM management - Create/Edit guest pre-start script
• VM management - Create/Edit guest check/run script