Version: 1 - Published: 20 Jan 2022

Linux Toolkit description

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The Toolkit provides the following features:

Manage start/stop virtual (emulated) machines, also named "guests" with services and customized shutdown commands:
- Automatic start of the guests at Charon Linux server boot
- Clean shutdown of the guests at Charon Linux server shutdown
- Clean shutdown of one guest at will using customized shutdown scripts (using 'ssh', 'expect' or any customized tool)

Monitor the CHARON guests log file
- Alert on removal of the license dongle
- Send alerts for all INFO, WARN and ERROR messages found (depending on the error level setting)

Alert on license approaching termination
- Number of days before expiration alert is sent can be customized

Provide menu driven options and command lines to:
- Start/stop guests
- Connect to guests console
- Display license contents, gather license content and update (send C2V and apply V2C files)
- Send configuration and log files by email
- Edit configuration files
- Gather Charon server information: Hardware, Operating System, Storage, Network interfaces, Charon version, Utilities version

History

January, 20th 2022 - kit version 1.60.5

New features

Updated to recognize the new syntax for OPA0 introduced in versions 4.12 and 4.11 B204-13.
Note: do not use the 'application' parameter with the toolkit for OPA0 console

Problems fixed by this patch

Updated message related to _fmt.v2c files in 'License update tool (apply V2C file)' menu option
License expiration check: bug solved with 'no expired product found' message, counters were not updated correctly + email layout update
In case the emulator process has to be killed, 5 tries are performed with SIGTERM signal, if not successful a SIGKILL is sent. This is to try to avoid cases where the license is not freed after the process is killed
Fixed issues when trying to unbind/bind USB controller when no one is defined on the Linux server

December, 23th 2021 - kit version 1.60.4

Problems fixed by this patch

Issue solved when generating C2V files: licenses provided by other hosts than the local one will be skipped during the generation process

December, 21th 2021 - kit version 1.60.3

Problems fixed by this patch

Issue solved when generating a C2V file when a software license and a dongle were present on the server and the 'menu' was executed from a remote session.

October, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60.2

Problems fixed by this patch

Rewording when displaying licenses found to make the difference between local licenses and remote licenses

October, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60.1

Problems fixed by this patch

The 'HASP license details' menu option:
- failed to read licenses when a dongle and a software license were present on the server
- did not correctly display license details after viewing license content when a USB dongle and a software license were present

September, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60

New features

New feature added in menu option '14 - Alerts management' to consider 'CPUx BUGCHECK' messages found in the log file as WARNING instead of INFORMATION. This feature is enabled by default (¹).
New feature added in menu option '14 - Alerts management' to consider 'CPUx Halted' messages found in the log file as WARNING instead of INFORMATION. This feature is enabled by default (¹).
When running the 'menu', checks are performed for 'atd' service: enabled and active. If this is not the case, alerts may not be sent and license could not be read from remote connection.
License expiration check now displays the number of dongles connected and the number of software licenses found.
When a virtual machine process ends abnormally, an entry in its log file is added with FATAL severity level (²). It provides information on the event (example: signal/KILL if the process got killed)
Log event monitoring now also monitors FATAL messages
When editing stop, pre-start and check scripts, if vim is selected, a special vimrc file is used for ease of reading on black background screens and white background screens.
During setup, if LS_COLORS is defined, the 'ls' command will highlight .cfg, .vdisk and .avdisk files.
Note: in case of Toolkit upgrade, please run # ./menusetup -a
'Send configuration and log files via email' option now asks for a number of sets instead of number of last log files if the log rotation is enabled. A set corresponds to the log file when the virtual machine started plus all its rotated log files.
crontab file is no more /var/spool/cron/root but /etc/cron.d/charon (³)
When displaying list of virtual machines, the number of warning, error and fatal messages found in the log file is displayed (if greater than 0).
Console log file, if defined, is now always displayed when listing managed virtual machines.
License expiration check now alerts in case a cloned Software License is possibly found.
Alert emails now contain the kit version for ease of support (⁴).
'Request for new license or license update' and 'License update tool' now stop if the 'aksusbd' service is not running

(¹): In case of upgrade this requires the restart of all log monitoring services from "menu" → "10 - Manage monitored guests logs" → "8 - Restart all log monitoring services".

(²): In case of upgrade, this requires the systemd service to be updated (ExecStopPost line to add, this will be notified when displaying the virtual machines list). In this case, open the 'menu" → 'VM Management' → 'Manage 'systemd' services' and edit the .service file.

(³): In case of upgrade, this requires the lines related to Charon in the /var/spool/cron/root file to be deleted and the menu option '13 - Manage recurring jobs' to be executed

(⁴): In case of upgrade, please update the alert script (if not already customized) from "menu" → "14 - Alerts management" → "6 - Update/reinstall alert script".

Problems fixed

'ed' added as a mandatory package
'mailx' added as a (highly) recommended package
'vim' added as a recommended package
'putty' added as a recommended package
'lsusb' required executable replaced by 'usbutils' required package
'ifconfig' commands used to get network interfaces details replaced by 'ip'
If a network configuration issue is detected when starting a virtual machine, the message that was sent was related to Linux 6. It now asks correctly torestart the NetworkManager service.
If 'rsh' needs to be installed for clean shutdown on RHEL 8, the installation procedure is detailed in the readme file ('menu' → 'VM Management' → 'Create/Edit guest stop script' -> 'Read how-to setup 'rsh' with ...')
For CentOS and RHEL 8, if 'yum' is not present, 'dnf' is used instead
If connection_override is enabled, a check is performed to verify the new syntax (set COM1 alias = ..) is used. If not (load virtual_serial_line OPA0 port= ..), a 'misconfigured' message is displayed (as this is not compatible)
Sometimes when the virtual machine is started the log continuous view was not automatically stopped when the started message was displayed
For CentOS, the service status reported by 'logview' and 'logtail' commands reported unknown service state. Workaround added to get the ActiveState service parameter status.
When checking the license expiration interactively, if a software license was present and a dongle was connected, only the software license was displayed. This did not affect automated checks executed from the crontab.
When using the "logtail" command, the continuous view is not stopped when a virtual machine started or stopped message is found. Also, when aborted, it does not stop other logtail commands running on the same server.
License expiration check: if more than one license available, if one was about to expired or had expired but not the other, the alert was not correct (no information below the one that was ok)
Missing FATAL messages highlighting in email body when sending log files

January, 13th 2021 - kit version 1.59

New features

Support of the OPA0 console override mode introduced in Charon-AXP/VAX V4.11 B20409.
Support of the Remote Management console introduced in Charon-AXP/VAX V4.11 B20409. New command added: 'vmrmc' that works either with 'telnet' or 'putty' depending on the preferences defined.
Note: if you upgrade from a previous version, the aliases have to be updated running the following commands:
# cd /opt/charon/utils
# ./menusetup -a
Menu option '5 - License driver management (aksusbd)': if aksusbd service is not enabled (start at boot), a warning message is displayed and the service is enabled.
When displaying virtual machines list, the "Start on boot" (Yes or No) has been replaced by "Startup type" (Automatic or Manual)
When a virtual machine is created, the startup type now is requested (default is manual)
When using multiple virtual machines (VM), the last selected one is no more global but is linked to the current session so that the configuration file or its shortened name has to be specified once and then all next commands will relate to this one for the terminal session. In case a new session is created the latest selected VM (in time), if any, will become the current one. This eases usage of additional command lines like vmcfg, vmstart, vmstop, vmconsole and vmrmc.

Problems fixed

The script used for clean shutdown with RSH expects an "RSH was successful" to continue. This message is not always returned, this depends on OpenVMS version. An alternative method has been added as a comment in the script.
When using "vim" as the favorite editor (from the preferences), the comments in the configuration file were displayed in gray which was not always easy to read. They are now in green.
Menu option "1 - Install/Upgrade/Remove Charon" update: if update completes successfully the "(error code 0)" is no more displayed (was confusing)
Menu option "9 - VM Management" then "3 - Connect to guest console" did display limited information in virtual machines list
If version installed is 4.11 and above, a banner is displayed recommending to reboot the Linux server
When using "vmconsole" or "vmrmc" and "#INFO:" lines are found in the configuration file, "Press enter" is no more asked after displaying these comments. They only are when using the 'menu'.
When a virtual machine is started, sometimes error messages related to process killing (tail) were displayed. They are now hidden.
When updating the alert script from "menu" → "14 - Alerts management" → "6 - Update/reinstall alert script" the message telling where the previous file will be saved was wrong ('.backup' has been removed). Its location has also changed to /opt/charon/archive and no more /charon/archive.
It was possible in some cases to add a virtual machine with a configuration file already used for another virtual machine
Menu option "1 - Install/Upgrade/Remove Charon" now checks if "Failed to" error messages are found during installation and not only the error code returned by 'yum'
In some cases licenses could not be detected and their content read. Example: an invalidated software license and a valid license dongle

November, 6th 2020 - kit version 1.58

Important note

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7 and 8 are the only versions of Linux supported. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is not supported anymore.

New features

When using expect during clean shutdown, 'expect' lines are highlighted
List of virtual machines managed has been updated (more space for the configuration file name)
License update tool (apply V2C file) interface has been simplified : no sub-menu, all in one page. A new option has been added too to define a description for licenses (optional). Can be used to display dongle location for example.
When editing the configuration file from the 'menu' or using 'vmcfg', if a "connection:<nic>" syntax is detected, an error is reported telling it's specific to Charon on Windows. This syntax issue is also reported when listing the managed virtual machines.
Option added in the preferences to allow non root users to execute 'menu' with 'sudo'. Must be set first with root user. If connection with root is not allowed then run: $ sudo /opt/charon/utils/charon_menu to edit the preferences.
Menu update: added option in '9 - VM Management' to create/edit guest check/run script + options reorganized
Service description is now added in alert emails body¹
Hostname is now added in alert emails subject¹
'putty' can be defined as default connection to the virtual machine console in the preferences. If 'putty' cannot be used (no X server), 'telnet' if installed will be used instead.
The 'logview' and 'logtail' command now display the virtual machine service state
New preferences options: it is possible to adjust the blue color in menus so that it is easier to read when using black background: 'menu' → '12 - Preferences' -> '10 - Blue color adjust for white/black background'
'vmlist' command now accepts '-l' or '--lite' parameter to display only configuration file name, service status, model and description (this is for cases with several Charon virtual machines defined).

¹: In case of upgrade this requires the restart of all log monitoring services from "menu" → "10 - Manage monitored guests logs" → "8 - Restart all log monitoring services" and to update the alert script (if not already customized) from "menu" → "14 - Alerts management" → "6 - Update/reinstall alert script".

Problems fixed

When a license is found the message sent is "license found" and no more "license dongle found" as this can also be a software license.
The WorkingDirectory of virtual machine service corresponds now to the configuration file folder.
Breaking execution of the 'expect' stop script could let child processes running 'tail' active.
Kit upgrade was resetting the preferences. Solved.
If the log monitoring is disabled from the preferences, meaning log monitoring is performed by another software/utility, the menu option "10 - Manage monitored guests logs" allows only to view and send log files.
Management of failed state corrected after the introduction of ExecStopPost.
The virtual machine state has been simplified, the REQUESTED substate is no more displayed as in some cases the information reported was not correct.
If the memory is not specified in the configuration file (set ram size=...), the default value is now displayed.
Added option 'q' to quit the menu option '5 - License driver management' as 'n' was not usual.
When editing the email recipients list in the option '14 - Alerts management' and using 'vim' as default editor, colors have been changed to make them easier to read when using black background
When editing the configuration file at guest creation, if 'vim' is used, the correct color scheme (vimrc) is used to make it easier to read when using black background
Some menu option were not testing correctly Firefox is installed or not
Network Configuration Utility (ncu) menu option: check updated for 'ncu' installation check
Alerts management option: the simulator now checks at least one recipient is defined
License update tool: when using black background, the listed v2c files were not all shown due to foreground color forced to black.

September, 4th 2020 - kit version 1.57

Problems fixed

If no stop script was defined, no alert was sent when the service stopped (RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8)

September, 1st 2020 - kit version 1.56

New features

The .tar file name is changed to Charon-AXPVAX_linux_toolkit.V1.56.tar
When displaying list of virtual machines (vmlist):
- the configuration file location is displayed (if not too long)
- the console port is always displayed
'rsh' is now recommended during installation (not mandatory)
'rsh' default stop script enhanced to track for firewall issues and warn user about operations to perform

Problems fixed

When "gvim" was select as GUI editor, the highlighting for license view, log and configuration file view was not activated.
If no console log was defined in the configuration file, when opening the console from the 'menu' or from 'vmconsole' did overwrite the previous log. There is now a rotation mechanism.
Minor update in continuous log display mechanism.
The 'expect' script guest_shutdown.exp did not wait for "Connected to localhost." message before sending commands.
Under certains situations, the "expect" script executed before service stop did let the service in FAILED state. Now is forced to INACTIVE (RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8).
Monitoring of failed services added for RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8. If the emulator process was killed, not alert was sent, this is now solved. If the list of defined guests reports a message telling to update the service definition, please run the "menu" then option "9" then "4" and update the .service file as requested.

July, 27th 2020 - kit version 1.55

New features

Support for Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.11
Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x and CentOS 8.x
Added new preference to stop the continuous log view of the emulator (guest) when started interactively if the "Started" or the "Stopped" message is found in the log file (enabled by default). When started, a message is displayed to invite the user to connect to the console.
'License update tool (apply V2C file)' new option added to remove .v2c files older than a number of days (365 days by default)
Some emails are sent with priority level (high, default or low)
HASP license details: if the editor is set to 'vim', syntax highlighting is used to make it easier to read
if the 'menu' is not executed as root, a warning is displayed on top left of the menu window

Problems fixed

Alerts management: if the mail sender was set with another email address and not just a name, that address was not taken into account. This is now solved. This requires the alert script, if not customized, to be reinstalled from "menu" -> "Alerts management" -> "Update/reinstall alert script".
License expiration check:
- added check / must be root
- added message if the license cannot be found after 3 attempts to restart the aksusbd service
Stopped date/time was not displayed on CentOS 7 servers whereas it was on RHEL 7 servers.
Server boot time was not correctly displayed, could be always 00:00
The "HASP License details" option did not display the SL KeyId.
When creating a new virtual machine or editing the configuration file, upon exit if the log file does not end with .log then it is considered a rotating log file and the directory is created (if it does not exist already)
Issues when opening firefox after "su". Opening firefox from user "root" is not recommended so firefox if needed is ran with the user who issued the "su" command.
Show host information option: the generated html file did not always contain the cfg and log files.

April, 14th 2020 - kit version 1.54

New features

Support for Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.10 Build 202-05 (patch)
Added default start and stop timeout for virtual machines service. Set to 20 minutes both by default. Changing this value will only affect newly created virtual machines. To change (or add) timeout values in existing virtual machines, please run "menu" -> "VM Management" -> "Manage 'systemd' services", select the virtual machine and edit the .service file (not available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x)
Alerts on events (warning and error messages in the log file by default) are now blocked if 5 consecutive iterations of checks (each 1 minute by default) send alerts. Emails are released after 20 minutes or if an iteration does not find any alert. This is to prevent from sending tons
of emails if Charon starts reporting lots of errors in the log (example: "<NIC>: RX FIFO overflow detected.")
Automatic log files archiving (crontab/charon_logarchive) now archives OPA0 log files if defined in the configuration file
Added an option to test kit compatibility (experimental) with OS installed in language other than en_US.UTF-8 (which is forced in scripts in such a case). To activate: # touch /root/.charon.experimental
Automatic log files archiving (crontab/charon_logarchive) now always keeps the latest log file if rotating log is enabled

Problems fixed

Main menu title updated (Stromasys - Legacy server emulation): color issues fixed when using Windows Terminal.
Minor update in the menusetup: sentence updated to remind user to install missing packages *AND* restart the script to complete installation
Added more checks and warning displays for missing packages
Incorrrect PATH settings during "menusetup" installation: was not able to accept PATH settings from other scripts in /etc/profile.d
When displaying list of virtual machines, some characters where added if the hw_model word was found somewhere else in the configuration file
Request for new license or license update option could not generate the C2V file for software licenses
Log archiving script: bug solved that did prevent from removing zipped files and minor display update
Question updated in the connect to console option if a connection is already active
"vmstart -h" and "vmstop -h" commands were pointing to the wrong usage text
The new rpm file introduced with Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.10 Build 202-05 (patch) is correctly removed when using the "Install/Upgrade/Remove Charon" option from the menu.

November, 21th 2019 - kit version 1.53

New features

minor update in log archive job (crontab)
"HASP license details", "License driver management", "Request for new license or license update" and "License update tool" options now display the number of licence dongles and software licenses (with more details for the "License driver management" option)
It is now possible to remove a software license from the "License update tool" option. This option is available only if at least a software license is present and files are not deleted but archived (renamed as .archive in the /var/hasplm/installed/68704 folder. The license (aksusbd) service is automatically restarted if a license has been removed.
Automatic log files archiving (crontab/charon_logarchive) now always keeps the latest log file if rotating log is enabled

Problems fixed

license expiration check: if a custom script is used for monitoring software, the counter alert is sent all time if no alert (NEUTRAL) is detected

September, 11th 2019 - kit version 1.52

New features

Support of Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.10 build 202-03 and above. Please note if a graphic card (PBXGA) is defined in the configuration file, the virtual machine will have to be started interactively (manually) and not with the Linux Toolkit
The menu options "License driver management (aksusbd)" and "Show host information" now displays the list of HASP dongles, if any, with their location and version
Minor update in license expiration check display: added major and minor version of the license
When applying a V2C file with the character user interface, V2C files with creation date equal to current date will be highlighted to make them easier to find
List of virtual machines, either from the menu or from the vmlist command now:
- displays the Charon products installed versions for versions 4.8 and above ("vmlist" command only)
- displays memory used by the Charon virtual machine (pmap)
- displays an alert if service is running and the configuration file has been updated after the service started

Problems fixed

When generating a software license from the menu, a false error was reported preventing from sending the c2v file by email.
If a tap device was used:
- the list of virtual machines did not display anything in the "Network:" part. This is now solved
- after editing the configuration file with the 'menu' or with the 'vmcfg' command line, no check was performed for tap_port. This is now solved
Copyright year updated from 2018 to 2019
The menu option "Sentinel Admin Control Center (firefox)" was in debugging mode, now solved.
The menu option "Show host information" now displays build number for Charon-VAX executable files found.
If a prestart script was setup on a RHEL 6.x server, the startup was failing. Solved.
The prestart script, if defined per virtual machine, was executed after the license presence check. This could prevent from running commands to activate a port on a USB/network box (see below)
The license presence check has been removed thanks to the "set session license_key_lookup_retry" feature in that can be defined in the configuration file. This check could only check a license was present and could not correspond to the one necessary to start the Charon virtual machine.
charon-mtd rpm file is correctly removed when uninstalling Charon-AXP and/or Charon-VAX. This rpm file was introduced with V4.9 B194-07
It is no more possible to uninstall Charon from the menu option "1 - Install/Upgrade/Remove Charon" if a virtual machine is running

February, 18th 2019 - kit version 1.51

New features

When applying a license file via the Character User Interface (CUI), a check is performed inside the v2c file for the necessary tags as some email content filters can corrupt the content of the v2c files.

Problems fixed

Firefox could fail with "Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported" message in case the session was not opened directly connected as root (with "su"). A workaround has been implemented for the following options:
- Sentinel Admin Control Center (firefox)
- License update tool (apply V2C file)
If no recipient was defined for the alerts, the default was set to support@stromasys.com, this opened a ticket in our ticketing system without information on the sender and no information reported to the users. Now the default is to send a message to root@<hostname> and support@stromasys.com.
When starting a virtual machine that is not automatically started at Linux server boot, a message related to "reset failed" was displayed. This is now solved

December, 5th 2018 - kit version 1.50

New features

License expiration check can:
- Now execute a custom script named "/opt/charon/utils/charon_expchk.custom" when it detects a license expiration, useful with monitoring utilities
- Work now as a separate kit for Charon-SSP and Charon-HPA
Preferences:
- New option to globally disable log monitoring in case virtual machines log files and license driver (aksusbd) are monitored by a dedicated software.
- Update on OOM Killer management:
  - The vm.overcommit_memory parameter can be updated with values 0, 1 or 2 (explanations are available by entering ? while selecting the mode)
  - The vm.panic_on_oom parameter can be updated with values 0 or 1 (explanations are available by entering ? while selecting the mode)
  - "Charon VM process killing prevention" can be selected regardless of vm.overcommit_memory value
Show host information
- The output file generated displays more information on 'ncu'
- Firefox could fail with "Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported" message in case the session was not opened directly connected as root (with "su"). A workaround has been implemented
Menu:
- "Virtualization technology" replaced by "Legacy server emulation"
- colors updated
- check added to limit execution to one user at a time.
  Note: if you upgrade from a previous version, the aliases have to be reset running the following commands:
  # cd /opt/charon/utils
  # ./menusetup -a
The "vmstop" command has a new parameter -f or --force to stop a virtual machine without asking for confirmation

Problems fixed

License expiration check: bug solved when a USB reset was requested. This was working only for RHEL 6.x and not RHEL 7.x and CentOS7
Preference update on OOM Killer management: when the vm.overcommit_memory parameter was set to 2, the virtual machines could not be protected against OOM. This is now solved.
In case the virtual machine is not defined to boot at Charon server boot, the virtual machine state column could show a wrong status

November, 13th 2018 - kit version 1.49 update

Important note

If Out Of Memory (OOM) killer is used, it is strongly recommended to set the "OOM global status" and "Charon VM process killing prevention" to enabled from the "Preferences" option rather than disabling OOM at global level as this option does not work in 100% of the cases. The preferences option will be updated on next release to only prevent OOM from killing Charon at process level.

September, 17th 2018 - kit version 1.49

New features

Support of Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.9 build 194-02 and above
Removed support for Charon-AXP V4.5
Log monitoring updated for Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.9 syntax change.
When using the "vmlist" command, if a daemon related to the license driver is missing, an alert is displayed.
Alerts management
- It is now possible to disable the alerts sent if the hardware specifications of the Linux server are below the recommended ones from the "Alerts management" menu option. Messages will still be present in the log file but the alert will not be sent.
- It is possible to disable/enable(default) the immediate alerts sent on USB dongle disconnection/connection
- If the installed version is V4.9 or above, an option is added to reduce the number of warning messages sent on license dongle removal.
When using command lines like vmstart, vmstop, vmcfg and vmconsole, the latest virtual machine name used is stored so that next commands do not need the configuration file name as a parameter. This is useful when there's more than one virtual machine on the server. If there's only one, no need to specify the configuration file name
Previously:
# vmstart pluto
# vmconsole pluto
Now:
# vmstart pluto
# vmconsole
Display change in the list of virtual machines:
- Layout reviewed for ease of reading
- A warning is displayed if the root password has expired. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x this can prevent the virtual machine from starting.
- Emulator and configuration file are now separated for better readability
- The virtual machine selected from command lines mentioned above is identified with a star in the virtual machines list instead of a dash
- If a pre-start script is defined, the first 3 lines executed before the virtual machine starts are displayed
- If the log full path is not specified for a virtual machine an alert is displayed (full path is mandatory for log monitoring)
- If the virtual machine is active and its log is monitored and the operating system uses 'systemd' (RHEL 7.x and CentOS 7.x) and the installed Charon version is V4.9 and above, the license status is displayed (license found, communication lost/restored, connection lost/application will stop, license expiration information)
Option added to restart all log monitoring services from the "Manage monitored guests logs" menu option, useful in case of kit upgrade.
Syntax highlighting updated for 'vim' and 'gvim' to highlight the configuration file displayed in the log
Show Host Information:
- Option updated to display the content of the prestart script if defined
- Highlight updated for the configuration file displayed in the log file for Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.9
- Added "lscsi -g" output in the Storage part
The "Request for new license or license update (send C2V file)" option has been updated for the new features provided with recent kits: if the c2v file can be generated for different keyids, one c2v file will be generated per keyid instead of one c2v file for the 1st license found. The zip file sent via email will contain all the c2v files generated.
How-to setup an ssh trust between Linux and Tru64 readme file has been updated in the "Create/Edit guest stop script" menu option and now explains what has to be done if a "no matching cipher found" message is displayed when executing an ssh command from the Linux server to the Tru64 one.
Preferences: added an option to add a separator when displaying defined virtual machines (default is none).
When starting a virtual machine, if a network interface defined in the configuration file has an IP address, it is automatically disconnected using the "nmcli dev disconnect (iface) <nic>" interface command and a warning alert is sent.
Option added in the menu to open the Sentinel Admin Control Center.

Important notes

If you're upgrading the toolkit, all the services monitoring the virtual machines logs have to be restarted from the "Manage monitored guests logs" menu option. The aksusbd log monitoring has to be restarted too. This does not affect running virtual machines.
The Charon-AXP/VAX version 4.9 provides a new syntax for OPA0 settings. Please note due to the detached process mechanism, no one terminal application can be started automatically thus the 'application' parameter must not be used.
The license monitoring within Charon-AXP and Charon-VAX V4.9 versions will provide much more information in the log than in previous versions. More alerts will then be sent in case of license switch (main/backup) or removal.

Problems fixed

If a stop script was set and comment lines were not removed, the list of guests displayed was showing the wrong method used to stop the virtual machine. This is now solved.
Minor update in predefined stop scripts for rsh and ssh: when the system is not alive, the script was trying to report a return code that is not needed
Bug solved with command lines (vmlist, vmconsole, etc..): newly added guests were not found until the boot settings (Enable/Disable start at server boot) were set.
If the configuration file is moved or deleted the virtual machines list is reporting this issue
Wrong result was shown in the alert when the service failed. This result has been removed. In case the service fails, it now only displays this information and manual investigation has to be done.
The "License Update Tool" option has been corrected to display _fmt (format) files before the license update so sorted by license, sequence then type (format 1st then update)
Minor bug with displayed Linux server boot time solved, now uses the correct command (who -b)
Fixed a problem where the number of cpus for a virtual machine was not correctly displayed

February, 21th 2018 - kit version 1.48

New features

Virtual machines (guests) stop script:
- 3 scripts have been added for ease of clean shutdown of your guests. They can work with either 'expect', 'ssh' or 'rsh' (warning: there are restrictions with the guest operating system version). It is still possible to install your own customized scripts.
- A new way of editing the script has been implemented and now, newly discovered guests will be added automatically in the script file. This does not mean you won't have to provide the necessary information depending on the method chosen.
- Information on how to implement these 3 methods is available from the "Create/Edit guest stop script" option in the form of how-to files.
- Option added to test the stop script.
When displaying the guests, more information is provided in the "stop script" column. It can now tell if a provided charon_gstop_<xxx> script is used or if a customized script is.
Syntax highlighting added while editing a configuration file with vim/gvim
Information on PuTTY settings and recommendations added in the Documentation menu.
New command lines added:
- 'vmstart': starts a virtual machine
- 'vmstop': stops a virtual machine
- 'vmconsole': connection to the virtual console
- 'vmcfg': edit the configuration file and performs some checks on exit
  Note: these commands work only for existing virtual machines managed by the toolkit.
After editing a configuration log file (using the "menu" or "vmcfg"), a test is performed to check the Charon log and OPA0 log files (if defined) can be created. This is to avoid specifying log files in folders that do not exist.
An option has been added in the preferences to disable semi-graphics/drawing tables (can be useful with some terminal emulators).
A script can be executed before the virtual machine starts (pre-start). The option is available from the "VM Management" menu option then "Create/Edit guest pre-start script". On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x servers, this requires the service to be reinstalled from the "VM Management" menu option.

Known bugs in kit 1.48

If a stop script is set and comment lines are not removed, the list of guests displayed is showing the wrong method used to stop the virtual machine. 13 Mar 2018
Newly added guests are not found until the boot settings (Enable/Disable start at server boot) are set when using the 'vmstart', 'vmstop', 'vmconsole' and 'vmcfg' commands. 13 Mar 2018

Problems fixed

When editing a configuration file with gvim, the checks were executed before the gvim window was closed. This is now solved.
When starting/stopping a service, if CTRL-C was pressed, the next operation displayed the service status more than once. This is now solved.
Fixed a problem that did set all stopped virtual machines status to "unrequested" if the license was not found when starting one virtual machine.
A freeze could occur when starting a virtual machine or when checks were performed if a "load / interface" line was misconfigured in the configuration file
USB dongle connection message updated. It is now more simple and understandable. This requires a restart of the aksusb monitor service: menu option "Manage monitored guests logs" then "Start or Restart aksusbd log monitor"
Copyright updated to 2013-2018
Fixed a bug that in the connect to console menu: when viewing console logs errors could be listed and number of lines in the log were not displayed

November, 13th 2017 - kit version 1.47 - bug correction

Problems fixed

Network checks: if an IP address was assigned to an interface used for Charon, the check was not correct for RHEL 7.x and CentOS 7.x. This is now solved.

October, 30th 2017 - kit version 1.47 - minor update

Problems fixed

minor display bug with "Service timeouts" and "Description" on the same line. Now solved.

October, 23th 2017 - kit version 1.47

Important notes

In case of kit upgrade, the log monitoring service will have to be restarted for all virtual machines on the server (this does not affect running virtual machines)
Due to a bug in our Wiki and its PDF exporter some links inside the PDF document are pointing to the online version of the document instead of the document itself

New features

Support for V4.4 removed. The console autoconnect feature is then disabled (was used to solve a buffer issue in V4.4). It you upgrade from a previous version of the toolkit, please update the root's crontab to remove the 'charon_console_autoconnect' entry. To create a log of the console, please use the 'set OPA0 log=<logfile>' feature available starting with version 4.6
Show host information:
- the "top" command output has been added
- more information on memory added including high memory consumers
- minor visual updates in HTML output file
Added checks to notify a log or console log is not unique: it should be when more than one virtual machine is defined
Menu: the option used to manage services is now renamed to "VM Management"
Preferences can now be set:
- default editor for CUI and GUI
- log display when starting/stopping a guest (virtual machine)
- Out Of Memory (OOM) Killer settings: preferences can be set for the Charon virtual machine process to be protected against OOM Killer
- Notes:
  - this menu entry replaces the "Connect to console" one. The "Connect to console" entry is still available from the "VM Management" menu entry.
  - the preferences are asked in the setup process but can be defined later
When a virtual machine is started or stopped the log is automatically displayed unless this option is disabled in the Preferences (not valid for RHEL 6.x). To end the display, press CTRL-C
Documentation menu entry: online help has been added for the other command lines (vmlist, logtail, logview)
Alerts management:
- Option added to customize the emails sender name, useful when emails are sent using the same sender (with a relay mailer for example). Note: if you did not customize the alert script, please use the menu option "13 - Alerts management" then "6 - Update/reinstall alert script"
- Option added to send simulation alerts
Send configuration and log files via email enhanced with color for ease of reading (same as "Show host information" / HTML file)
When displaying the virtual machines list, if a timeout is defined on service start and/or stop, it is now displayed

Problems fixed

Menu setup: the 'at' package has been added as a requirement
Menu entries: title changed for Virtual Machines Management
Show host information:
- script updated to display more information during the HTML file creation
- a blank line was added after a comment line when displaying the configuration files. Issue solved
Log monitoring:
- In case the aksubd service had to be restarted, an email was sent with the command output (from 'at' job). This is no more the case.
- when the log is using the rotation mechanism, a license detected message was sent when the rotation occurred whereas it should be sent only when the virtual machine starts or when a dongle has been plugged in. This problem is now solved.
- when the log is using the rotation mechanism, if a hardware specification is not met, a warning message was sent not only when the virtual machine started but also when the log rotation occurred. This problem is now solved.
- when a dongle is detected as disconnected but is physically still connected, a message was sent pointing to the wrong menu option. This is now solved. (Reminder: in such a case, an automatic recovery operation is performed to try to reconnect the dongle)
As the console autoconnect feature is removed, the 'screen' program is no more mandatory
Clean shutdown: the example script has been simplified and corrected.
The script that is used to check abnormal termination of services is no more installed in the crontab when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x and CentOS 7.x as the services are monitored by systemd (script: charon_mongstop)
Alerts management: solved an issue where the stop alert was sent without the "requested by user" information. Note: this does not take into account the F6 key if enabled as the F6 is not recorded in the log.
When the virtual machine failed, a wrong status (success) was sent. This is now solved.

March, 8th 2017 - kit version 1.46 UPDATE

Problems fixed

Minor bug correction on Show host information option that did prevent from sending the email when using the "Send HTML file to recipient" option

February, 23th 2017 - kit version 1.46

New features

Validated with CHARON-AXP and CHARON-VAX V4.8
Validated on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 + CentOS 7
Minor updates on log messages and color display for better visibility
Some updates in the main menu entries, names set to match the V4.8 utilities, edit configuration files option removed from the main menu as it is located in the menu option 8.
New option to view and restart the license service status (aksusbd)
A new command line is added, named "vmlist" to display the list of managed virtual machines and their status (same as menu option 8)
Show host information option (used for debugging):
- now reports configuration files description
- the files located in /opt/charon/log are joined to the zip file when emailed
- includes the "vmlist" view (see above)
- extended table of contents
- now includes the output of 'lsblk' command
- can be used out of the Linux Toolkit to generate system configuration reports
Ready for the new "License has changed" messages (0000040B) in the logs (vimrc and continuous tail)
After editing a log file, a check is performed to verify the full path to the log file, or to the folder if rotating log files are used, is specified

Problems fixed

Copyright updated/year
Clean shutdown examples updated for RHEL 7.x and CentOS 7: now when a service is stopped it reports INACTIVE/REQUESTED and no more FAILED
log archive from crontab: gzip issue solved / error with existing files
Install/Upgrade/Remove CHARON: "Type" column is removed (wrong information was reported)
License expiration check updated due to changes in the hasp_srm_view output starting with CHARON-AXP/VAX V4.8
Install/Upgrade/Remove CHARON option now installs packages with gpgcheck disabled to avoid issues with user created repositories
Email subject changed when events are detected (CHARON was mentioned twice)

Charon-AXP/VAX Linux Toolkit - Release notes for Kit 1.60.5

Linux Toolkit description

History

January, 20th 2022 - kit version 1.60.5

New features

Problems fixed by this patch

December, 23th 2021 - kit version 1.60.4

Problems fixed by this patch

December, 21th 2021 - kit version 1.60.3

Problems fixed by this patch

October, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60.2

Problems fixed by this patch

October, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60.1

Problems fixed by this patch

September, 7th 2021 - kit version 1.60

New features

Problems fixed

January, 13th 2021 - kit version 1.59

New features

Problems fixed

November, 6th 2020 - kit version 1.58

Important note

New features

Problems fixed

September, 4th 2020 - kit version 1.57

Problems fixed

September, 1st 2020 - kit version 1.56

New features

Problems fixed

July, 27th 2020 - kit version 1.55

New features

Problems fixed

April, 14th 2020 - kit version 1.54

New features

Problems fixed

November, 21th 2019 - kit version 1.53

New features

Problems fixed

September, 11th 2019 - kit version 1.52

New features

Problems fixed

February, 18th 2019 - kit version 1.51

New features

Problems fixed

December, 5th 2018 - kit version 1.50

New features

Problems fixed

November, 13th 2018 - kit version 1.49 update

Important note

September, 17th 2018 - kit version 1.49

New features

Important notes

Problems fixed

February, 21th 2018 - kit version 1.48

New features

Known bugs in kit 1.48

Problems fixed

November, 13th 2017 - kit version 1.47 - bug correction

Problems fixed

October, 30th 2017 - kit version 1.47 - minor update

Problems fixed

October, 23th 2017 - kit version 1.47

Important notes

New features

Problems fixed

March, 8th 2017 - kit version 1.46 UPDATE

Problems fixed

February, 23th 2017 - kit version 1.46

New features

Problems fixed

July, 26th 2016 - kit version 1.45

Problems fixed

April, 26th 2016 - kit version 1.44

New features

Problems fixed

January, 5th 2016 - kit version 43

New features

Problems fixed

December, 7th 2015 - kit version 42

New features