Running CHARON on VMware - Network configuration

Description

When using CHARON on VMware, additional configuration steps are required to setup networking.

There are settings to be done on 3 levels:

1 CHARON configuration
2 VMware ESXi host level
3 Emulator host level (in the VM appliance)

Step-by-step guide

CHARON configuration

In most cases Promiscuous mode is required to be set on VM virtual adapter level. This way networking would allow modern traffic control.

‘Legacy’ packet port mode is an exception, which is kept for compatibility, and was mandatory for configuration with one old version of VMware.However, if Promiscuous mode is not enabled, legacy_mode switch can be used.It is not recommended to use it.

CHARON-VAX

Examples:

set XQA0 legacy_mode=true

set XQB0 legacy_mode=true
...
set EZA0 legacy_mode=true

CHARON-AXP

Examples:

set EWA0 legacy_mode=true
set EWB0 legacy_mode=true
...

VMware ESXi host level

Version 8 and up virtual appliance with E1000 network adapters only should be used for Charon up to version 4.9 included ( not E1000E adapters ). Versions 4.10 and above support E1000, E1000E and VMXNETx adapters.
A dedicated Port Group has to be created on all ESXi servers where a CHARON VM can be located.
- Promiscuous mode should be enabled on just this port group.
Run vSphere client
- Select the ESXi system hosting CHARON appliance (root)
  - Select the "Configuration" tab
    - Select "Networking" in the "Hardware" left pane
      - Click on "Properties" on the vSwitch used for CHARON appliance
        Select Port Group, click "Edit" button
        Select the "Security" tab
        Set "Promiscuous mode", "MAC address changes" and "Forged transmits" to "Accept"
        Select the "Traffic Shaping" tab
        Disable traffic shaping

Emulator host level (in the VM appliance)

Windows

Linux

Switch off the offload parameters for chosen network interface using "ethtool" utility.

A first step is to find what additional parameters are currently set to "on" on the host network adapter to be used by CHARON. To do that issue:
ethtool will return the offload parameters and their values
Example:
Then use ethtool to switch off all the offload parameters:
Example1: command lines
Example2: One command line
or alternatively:
Error messages can be ignored
.
For the example above let's create a temporary file containing the commands to be run on system startup, since the offload parameters must be switched off after each reboot
- Let's suppose that the name of the file is "offload_off_eth1.sh". In this case running it on system startup can be done in the following ways:
  - On Red Hat Linux:
  - On Fedora Core: