Host System Prerequisites

Hardware Prerequisites

The host hardware on which Charon-PAR runs must fulfill at least the following requirements:

Intel x86-64 hardware platform
At least 3GHz, 3.4GHz or higher is recommended
SSE 4.2 and FMA required
CPU cores required:
- at least one CPU core for the host operating system, and
- at least 2 cores per emulated CPU (3 cores for future advanced DIT)
RAM requirements:
- 4GB RAM plus 1.1 times the emulated RAM size
- at least 24GB RAM for N4000 models
One Ethernet interface for the host system and one Ethernet interface for each emulated Ethernet NIC. Alternatively, TAP interfaces can be used.
At least one available USB port if hardware licenses are to be used.
Disable NUMA balancing.
- To check the status, use the command: cat /proc/sys/kernel/numa_balancing (0 = off, 1 = on).
- To disable NUMA balancing temporarily, use the command: sysctl -w kernel.numa_balancing=0
- To make the configuration permanent you must create a sysctl configuration entry:
  - Create a file in /etc/sysctl.d/ (e.g., 90-numa.conf)
  - Add the line kernel.numa_balancing=0
  - Please note: it still works to add the line kernel.numa_balancing=0 directly to /etc/sysctl.conf but this file has been deprecated in newer Linux versions.

If possible, turn off hyper-threading in BIOS.

Please note:

If the host CPU does not support the required extensions (SSE and FMA), the emulator will not start. Instead, it will stop with an error message indicating the missing features.
To identify the capabilities of the host system CPU, use one of the following commands: lscpu or cat /proc/cpuinfo.

Software Prerequisites

Host Operating System

The following host operating systems are supported by Charon-PAR:

Red Hat (64-bit): versions 7.x starting with 7.4, and versions 8.x
CentOS (64-bit): versions 7.x starting with 7.4, and versions 8.x

General limitation:

Do not hibernate or suspend the host system while Charon-PAR instances are active.
Charon-PAR 3.0.5 build 21906 implemented real-time priority for the timer task. This changes requires that CPU accounting on the Linux host be disabled.

Other Host Software Prerequisites

The license driver package requires the 32-bit glibc package. This is available in the standard CentOS and Red Hat repositories. Sometimes it is not possible to use an online repository for the installation of 32-bit glibc package. In this case the procedure described in How to install the glibc.i686 package without an Internet connection can be used.

On RHEL 7.x and CentOS 7.x, the libev package is required. If it is reported as missing during the Charon installation on RHEL 7.x check that the repository extras is included and enabled, if not, include and enable it. Please refer to your Linux distribution administrator's guide. Example for RHEL 7.x:

# yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms

Supported Hypervisors

The Linux host system can run inside a VMware virtual machine. Supported VMware versions:

VMware ESXi 5.5 and 6.x up to 6.7

Please note: Using the VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) to dynamically move an active Charon-PAR instance to a different server is not supported (vMotion). In particular, moving to a system that does not have identical hardware (including clock speed) will cause problems.

Licensing Requirements

Charon-PAR requires a valid license to run any emulated systems. The license can be provided as a

local hardware license (USB dongle),
software license, or
network license (every software license can also be a network license).

Without the presence of a valid license key, the emulated system will not start. Should the license become invalid or be removed during operation, the emulated system will stop after a grace period. The lengths of this grace period depends on the version of the Charon-PAR software and the license configuration.

In a virtualized or cloud environment, there are additional challenges for user-friendly and stable product licensing. For such environments, please contact Stromasys or your Stromasys VAR to discuss the best option for your requirements.

Guest System Prerequisites

Currently supported Charon-PAR/PA9 guest system versions:

The currently implemented 64-bit models support the following HP-UX versions:

HP-UX 11v1 (11.11), 11v2 (11.23)
In addition, emulated systems configured with 360 and 440 MHz CPUs can also run HP-UX 11.00 (e.g., rp2400-1-360, rp2400-1-440, rp7400-1-440, etc.)

The 7000-720 32-bit model supports HP-UX 9.07, 10.20, and 11.00 (32-bit versions).

HP-UX 11v3 (11.31) on rp34xx and rp44xx is supported starting with Charon-PAR version 3.0.5.

Currently supported Charon-PAR/PA3 guest system versions:

MPE/iX 7.5 (Backward compatible)

HP Operating System Licensing Requirements

The user is responsible for clearing any licensing requirements regarding the guest operating system and the applications running on the guest operating system with the original vendor(s).

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