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Charon-SSP


Connecting with the Charon Manager

Owned by W.Erber
Last updated: Nov 14, 2019

Contents


General Information

To manage Charon-SSP and the emulated SPARC systems, you must connect to the Charon-SSP cloud instance with the Charon-SSP Manager. The Charon-SSP Manager is the main interface to all important functions of the Charon-SSP software.

Prerequisites:

  • The Charon-SSP Manager must be installed on your local system.
  • For access via the public IP address of the Charon host instance:
    • The security configuration on your Charon host instance must at least allow SSH access. This allows the built-in SSH tunneling of the Charon-SSP Manger to work. Should you not use SSH tunneling, you must open up additional ports. However, if the connection runs over the Internet without a VPN, Stromasys strongly recommends to use SSH tunneling to protect your Charon-SSP cloud instance and any emulated systems running on it.
    • You must have the public IP address of the Charon-SSP host instance in the cloud. To determine this address refer to the instance information displayed on the cloud management console.
    • To use the Charon Manager integrated SSH tunnel, you need the private SSH key of the key-pair associated with your instance.
  • For access via an SSH-based VPN:
    • Active SSH-based VPN (see SSH VPN - Connecting Charon Host and Guest to Customer Network)
    • Private IP address of the Charon-SSP host in the VPN

(warning) Initial management password configuration: before connecting to the Charon-SSP host in the cloud with the Charon Manager for the first time after the initial installation you must set the management password. This can either be done via the command line (see SSH Command-Line Access) or via the Charon Manager as described below. 

Starting the Charon Manager and Login to Charon Host

Starting the Charon Manager

To start the Charon-SSP Manager and to open the Charon Manager login window, log in on your Linux management system and use the following command:

$ /opt/charon-manager/ssp-manager/ssp-manager


The steps above will open the Charon Manager login window which has two tabs.


Entering Charon Manager Login Information and Connecting to Charon Host

Step 1: the Charon Manager Login tab

If the management password has not yet been set, perform the following steps:

  • Enter the public IP address of your Charon-SSP host instance in the IP address field.
  • Leave the Password field empty.
  • Enable the SSH tunnel configuration (select ON).
  • Change to the SSH tab to fill in the required information there.


If the management password has already been set, perform the following steps:

  • Enter the public IP address or the private VPN IP address of your Charon-SSP instance in the IP address field.
  • Enter the Charon-SSP management password.
  • Enable the SSH tunnel configuration for communication across a public network unless you use a secure VPN connection.
  • If the SSH tunnel is enabled, change to the SSH tab to fill in the required information there.


Step 2: the Charon Manager SSH tab

If you use the integrated SSH tunnel, perform the following steps:

  • Enter the Charon-SSP user (charon or sshuser) in the Username field.
  • Enter the path to the private key file (click on the three dots next to the Private key field to open a file browser). You associated your cloud instance with this key-pair during instance creation.
  • In rare cases, you may need to add the path to the public key on the local system.
  • Enter the passphrase for the private key if required. 
  • Adjust the server port (default 22) if required.


(info) The public key of the key-pair can copied from the .ssh/authorized_keys file of the sshuser of the instance.



Step 3: connecting to the Charon host system

After entering all the required information, click on Connect to connect to the Charon-SSP instance.

If the management password still needs to be set, you will receive a prompt to enter the new password:

  • Enter the desired password in the New password field and confirm it in the Confirm password field.
  • Then click on OK.
  • The login process continues.




After a connection has been successfully created, the Charon Manager welcome screen opens. Example of the Charon Manager welcome page:

(info) Note that the title bar of this screen indicates the managed system type in square brackets (conventional Red Hat installation in the example). In case of a cloud instance, it indicates the type of cloud. If the connection is created via the embedded SSH tunnel of the Charon Manager, the title bar will show that an SSH connection is being used. In the remaining sections of this document, screenshots from different Charon host systems may be used so the title bar may not always correspond to the Charon-SSP variant treated in this document. Older versions only show the address of the target system.

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