Charon-AXP V4.11 Build 204-10 for Linux 64-bit - Release Notes
Version: 1 - Published:
Table of Contents
Please review this document before proceeding with installation of Charon-AXP for Linux
Products included in the Charon-AXP version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
In this document the terms Charon and Charon-AXP are used to refer to the products below:
Charon-AXP/400 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
- Charon-AXP/2000 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/4100 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/DS10 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/DS20 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/ES40 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/GS80 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/GS160 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Charon-AXP/GS320 version 4.11 build 204-10 for Linux 64bit
Supported software platforms
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x - 64bit
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x - 64bit
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 to 6.10 - 64bit
- Linux Centos 8.x - 64bit
- Linux Centos 7.x - 64bit
- VMware ESXi 5.5 and 6.0 up to 6.7 (requires a supported Linux operating system on top of a ESXi virtual machine)
For CentOS, a connection to the internet is required to install the glibc.i686
package which is not included in the Standard distribution DVD. If there's no connection available, please use the "Everything" distribution DVD.
Hosting hardware requirements and configuration recommendations
- The number of available x86/x64 compatible (Intel or AMD) CPU cores in the hosting server should be at least 150% of the number of emulated CPU cores.
- The recommended number of available (Intel or AMD) CPU cores in the hosting server is twice the number of emulated CPU cores.
- Intel Xeon E-series v3 and above with a CPU clock frequency from 3GHz; to achieve the best performance use the latest Intel Xeon CPUs from the Scalable Processors family.
- DDR4 RAM 2133 MHz and above is recommended for optimal Charon performance.
- The minimum host memory size depends on the amount of emulated AXP memory and on the number of Charon instances running on one host. The minimum host memory = (2Gb + the amount of HP Alpha memory emulated) per Charon-AXP instance.
- Mid range and high end RAID controllers with at least 1GB cache with write-back enabled and battery backup option is recommended.
(Using low-end RAID controllers may cause significant performance degradation and Charon-AXP crash. RAID5 and similar configurations are not recommended.) - Intel HT (Hyper-Threading Technology) should be disabled on the hosting server.
- Hosting server should always run at full speed. Power management and the screen saver should be disabled on the hosting server.
- The Port Group Security Tab containing the Charon network adapter(s) must be set to Promiscuous mode, MAC Address Change and Forged Transmit=Accept.
New functionalities
New functionalities introduced in build 204-10 since previous release (build 204-09)
- Added support for 8bit depth PBXGA (ID#5667)
New functionalities introduced in build 204-09 since previous release (build 202-03)
- Sentinel Runtime upgraded to version 8.13.
- Implemented support for booting AXP emulators via MOP. MOPv3 (DECnet) and MOPv4 (LANCP) are supported. Both EW and EI adapters are supported for MOP network boot.
- Implemented serial line logging capability for serial lines attached through virtual PBXDA (DIGI board).
- New parameter "connection_override" for console that allows new connection to override existing connection, if any.
- Remote management console feature added. Its purpose is to let the emulator trigger actions on the Charon host to properly unload and save a vtape container while the guest operating system is running.
- PBXGA graphic adapter is able to change the graphic console screen size, for example: "load PBXGA GYA size = 800x600" (ID#5583)
- New version of PuTTY, supporting "-title" option (ID#5590)
- To facilitate online log monitoring by third-party tools, the log file (session or OPA0) is flushed on disk regularly. Interval for periodic flush to be supplied through configuration file (optionally) (ID#5532)
- Charon executable files print a summary of options on "-h" or "--help" command line option (ID#5578)
- The parameter "log_flush_period" is available on all implementation of serial lines (ID#5633)
- The parameter "port_enable_mac_addr_change" is available on Linux version of Charon as well (ID#5594)
- Sample configuration files are updated (ID#5246, #5622)
- Special version of NCU (Network Configuration Utility) is included with Linux products for RHEL8
Problems fixed
Problems fixed in build 204-10 since build 204-09
- PBXGA drawline and blink bug fixes (ID#5640)
Problems fixed in build 204-09 since build 202-03
- Fixed implementation of AlphaServer SRM console to enable support for 256GB of RAM on virtual AlphaServer GS320.
- Fixed a problem when specification of "log_rotation_period = 0" ("never") worked not correctly (ID#5580, Support Case 00031938)
- Fixed a problem of Charon crash with code 0000000B at 0x7f5cd5b49d48 (ID#5584, Support Case 00031955)
- Fixed a problem of Charon crash with code 0000000B at 0xbd832e (ID#5529, Support Case 00032085)
- Fixed a problem with auto-negotiation when Charon configuration contains the parameter adapter_mode="auto" (ID#5506)
- Fixed a problem when negotiated line speed is reported incorrectly at DECnet startup (ID#5626)
- Fixed various problems with "IDLE" utility, including forcing CPU for loosing time interrupts and enabling the utility after installation (ID#5343)
- Fixed a problem when Charon keeps on creating multiple small log files on emulator crash (ID#5556)
- Fixed a problem when sometimes PT.EXE (performance tool) may freeze (ID#5614)
- Several problems are fixed in KGPSA pass-through driver, the whole implementation is improved (ID#5444, #5555, Support Case 00031374)
- Fixed a problem when core dump occurs while accessing PBXGA window over network connection (ID#5449)
- Tru64 5.1B correctly installs (from ISO images) on the following models: AlphaServer 1200, AlphaServer 4000, Alphaserver 4100 (ID#5560)
Configuration changes required when upgrading from previous version(s) or migrating from Windows platform to build 204-10
- E1000E and VMXNETx VMware adapters are fully supported
- A Charon license update is required before upgrading. Stromasys might request a HASP dongle state (c2v file) or a host fingerprint taken by HASP Update Service (which is included in the Charon kit) in order to issue a license update. Please refer to License installation for details.
Software licenses (SL) generated with previous kits, even if they allow the execution of version 4.11, are not compatible with this kit. If you use SL, please send us a new fingerprint (C2V file) for update.
An error code 78 (HASP_SECURE_STORE_ID_MISMATCH) may appear while trying to read the license content if the SL has not been updated.
- Uninstall any installed version of Charon-AXP before installing the new version
- If VMware is used, it must be upgraded to version 5.x, 6.0, 6.5 or 6.7
- The Tru64 kernel might require a rebuild for some emulated AXP models that are included in the Charon-AXP/4100 product
- It's recommended to archive the old Charon log files before starting the new version in order to avoid mixing character encoding in the log files
- Charon-AXP cannot be started remotely via ssh, telnet, VNC, etc., if a local HASP dongle or a local software license is used. Please use Charon Linux Toolkit. Alternatively, network dongle or network software license can be used. Another option is to configure Charon-AXP as a Linux service/daemon manually. See "Running as system service" chapter for details on how to configure Charon-AXP as a service/daemon
- Intelligent packet processing should be switched off for the network adapters dedicated to Charon with "Network Configuration Utility" (ncu) utility. Please refer to FTP, NFS, and general network issues with Charon-AXP and Charon-AXP on Linux for details
- Linux Xterm does not provide the full functionality of a VT100 terminal by default. Please refer to the user manual for the details of setting up the mode for emulating VT100.
- The Charon-AXP configuration file should be reviewed if migrating from Charon-AXP for Windows. Windows specific configuration parameters (for example, network adapter references) should be changed to Linux specific parameters. Please refer to the Charon-AXP V4.11 for Linux - User's Guide for details.
- Charon executable files, libraries and data (disk container files) files should be excluded from all the antivirus checks, including on-the-fly checks and scheduled scans
- HT (Hyper-Threading Technology) should be disabled on the hosting server
- Power management and screen saver should be switched off on the hosting server
- Please note that the actual network communication speed and mode are determined by the Linux network speed and mode settings. This feature is required to avoid network timeouts in VMS and Tru64 during the negotiation phase
- Console definition syntax has been changed in the configuration file since v4.9, please read the user's guide.
- If "IDLE" utility is going to be used, perform the following commands after its installation:
$ @sys$startup:charoncp_startup $ charoncp set idle /enable
Notes related to upgrade from previous version
- A Linux server reboot is highly recommended after uninstallation of the previous version of Charon, so before installation of version 4.11, and a reboot is also highly recommended after 4.11 kit installation (some issues found with licenses detection)
- Software licenses have to be renewed as they are no more compatible with previous version even if your license was 4.11 ready.
Known restrictions of build 204-10
Despite the fact that Charon is already optimized for wide range of the guest OS tasks, there may be some situations (for example OpenVMS compilation tasks) when performance degradation may reach about 50% of the version 4.8. In this case the following solutions can be applied:
- Enlarging ACE cache size
Try this solution first. It is recommended to enlarge the ACE cache size at least in 2 times as it is shown in the following example:
set ace cache_size = 2048
If this solution does not work for the specific guest OS tasks, apply also the next solution.
Setting specific ACE host options
Set the following set of options in the configuration file:
set session n_of_io_cpus = <N>
set ace num_translators = <N>
set ace host_options = "--fixed-variant=0 --x64-nooptimize"
where <N> is number of the I/O CPUs dedicated to Charon. If this value is not set (the default value is used) it is recommended to specify it explicitly.
Other restrictions:
- Network and tape booting is not currently supported.
- The total number of devices (both controllers and units, including disks) displayed by CHARON SRM console is limited to 48. Note that it does not affect the actual number of configured devices provided to CHARON guest OS.
- IDLE works only once, right after CHARONCP installation. As soon as VMS reboots, host CPU utilization returns to maximum and does not drop untill VMS shutdown (ID#5343)
Charon emulated console supports only 80 symbols in one line.
- telnet negotiation does not work correctly on serial console
- CD-ROM cannot be configured as "/dev/cdrom" for IDE CD-ROM (ID#3042)
- In some specific situations the virtual disks descriptions can be displayed as "Virtual SCSI Disk (C)SRI" in SRM console. This problem does not affect Charon functionality (ID#4729)
- Hardware partitioning is not supported by Charon. However the same hardware layout can be emulated with multiple Charon instances on the same host
- If Charon is mapped to a physical CD-ROM it may be displayed as a "Virtual CD-ROM" in Charon SRM console. It happens due to some restriction of the Linux CD-ROM interface ("dev/sr", "/dev/scd", "/dev/cdrom") - it does now allow to query actual peripheral identification (SCSI Vendor ID / SCSI Product ID). The workaround is:
- Usage of the "media_type" parameter in configuration file. See the User's Guide for more information.
- Usage of the SCSI Generic Interface ("/dev/sg<N>") rather than the CD-ROM ("dev/sr<N>", "/dev/scd<N>", "/dev/cdrom") interface. (ID#4564) - PCI Passthrough KGPSA emulation may not work correctly if physical FC PCI adapter shares PCI interrupt line with any other PCI module(s)
- Installation of Digital UNIX 4.0g fails on AS4100 when FC is configured (ID#3191)
- Physical tapes and generic SCSI devices currently do not work. The patch will be released as soon as the problem is fixed.
- Charon-AXP does not emulate LSI 53C810 SCSI controller. Charon-AXP emulates Qlogic KZPBA SCSI controller, which is the reason that the earliest supported VMS version is 6.2-1H3, and earliest supported Tru64 version is 3.2. If the driver for KZPBA is installed on an earlier version of VMS or Tru64 before system transfer to Charon-AXP, it will function on Charon-AXP (ID#2291)
- Non fatal "ERRFMT BUGCHECK" message may appear on boot from a backup disk created by Charon-AXP. This message does not affect OpenVMS normal startup (ID#3123)
- By default the layout of the right part of the PC keyboard is not mapped to the layout of the VT100 keyboard. Use a special script created by Geoff Kingsmill. Run this script, then run Charon-AXP normally. (ID#3030)
- Telnet sessions to Charon-AXP console ports do not support ESC sequences of VT100 by default. To enable it open xterm, connect to Charon-AXP and press "Ctrl-]" once connected. Then issue a command "mode char" to enable character mode. If it is also required to map righthand part of the keyboard correctly use the xterm started by the Geoff Kingsmill script (see above). (ID#3030). See this article for more: Input issues with telnet
- "CRC error" may occur while running the command "BACKUP/LIST/REW MKA100:..." on OpenVMS Alpha Version 8.4. This problem can also be observed on AXP hardware (ID#2925)
- There is no DE500-BA device driver for OpenVMS 6.2-1H3. VMS patches are necessary in order to support the DE500-BA device with the emulator models AS1200/AS4000/AS4100 (ID#3091). The VMS 6.2-1H3 patches for these models are:
ALPBOOT12_062
ALPLAN06_062
ALPCLUSIO01_062
ALPCPU1603_062 (is CPU specific for AS4100. Please check VMS patch documentation for relevant patches for other Alpha models) - The DE500-BA device error count will be equal to 1 on OpenVMS 8.2/8.3. It has no negative effect on VMS boot and operations (ID#2963)
- Performance tests can cause VMS 6.2-1H3 to hang on an emulated AS400
Network speed auto negotiation works with some restrictions (see the table below). It is always recommended to use full-duplex mode on the emulator host.
Host settings
VMS (autodetect mode)
Tru64 (autodetect mode)
1 Gbps full-duplex
100 Mbps full-duplex
100 Mbps full-duplex
1 Gbps half-duplex
100 Mbps half-duplex
100 Mbps half-duplex
100 Mbps full-duplex
100 Mbps full-duplex
100 Mbps full-duplex
100 Mbps half-duplex
100 Mbps half-duplex
100 Mbps half-duplex
10 Mbps full-duplex
10 Mbps full-duplex
10 Mbps full-duplex
10 Mbps half duplex
10 Mbps half duplex
10 Mbps half-duplex
- The virtual Alpha firmware is designed to support a maximum of 48 devices. However for VMS and Tru64 all devices are available
- The firmware does not support the command recall using the up/down arrow keys.
- The VMS 7.x Monitor utility shows the maximum CPU quantity instead of actually configured quantity. It is a VMS 7.x restriction and does not apply to VMS 8.x.
- Microsoft Windows for Alpha is not supported on Charon-AXP
- Use of IDE is limited to ATAPI CDROM on the host machine. No iSCSI support is planned for IDE. UETP may produce error messages if IDE emulation is used.
- Emacs hangs if the OPA0 console is used. Emacs works fine over an SSH connection.
- Please note that Charon-AXP has not been tested with SAN attached storage volumes over 2TB in size.
Tru64 temperature monitoring should be disabled. It could cause Tru64 version 5.x shutdown with the message: "system fan has failed, system is shutting down now". If installing Tru64 from scratch, do not install envmon package. If it is already installed, disable automatic startup by booting into SINGE USER mode and issue the following commands:
# mount -u /
# mount /usr
# rcmgr set ENVMON_CONFIGURED 0then "exit" (Ctrl-D) to multi user mode.
- CharonCP utility issues:
- When IDLE is enabled, CPU seems to lose timer interrupts.
- The IDLE installation utility does not seem to correctly enable the IDLE upon completion of installation.
New functionalities introduced in previous builds
- DEC ZLXp-E1 PCI Graphics Adapter (based on DECchip 21030 PCI Graphics Accelerator) is supported, Charon provides a virtual console for displaying graphics (ID#5092)
- LP8000 (KGPSA) is now supported over SG3 (Linux SCSI generic) interface (on RHEL and CentOS 7.x only) (ID#5378)
- AlphaStation Soundcard (PCXBJ) is supported on Tru64 UNIX (ID#5412)
- Linux bonding adapters are supported (ID#4750)
- Charon stability is improved (ID#5483, 5331)
- LTO-6 Tape support is improved (ID#5391)
- Kernel version and System release are included to the log (ID#5393)
- Log is flushed regularly and asynchronously to facilitate online LOG monitoring by third-party tools (ID#5532)
- VMware Ethernet adapters: in addition to the E1000, E1000E and VMXNETx adapters are now fully supported.
- Copyrights are updated in all sample configuration files (ID#5399)
- Licensing mechanism is improved (ID#5375, 5458, 5459)
- Network License management processing changes (ID#4631)
- hasp_srm_view output is improved (ID#5392)
- "ncu" utility is improved (ID#5404)
- To address security issues new Sentinel LDK 7.6 is used for building this release; most up-to-date Sentinel run-time (v7.63) is included (ID#5211, ID#5227)
- Network performance and stability have been significantly improved (ID#5111, ID#4987)
- Built-in serial lines (OPA0 and TTA0) have been re-considered and alternative implementation is provided to resolve multiple issues (ID#4844, Case #00028691)
- USB physical drive support is improved (ID#3323)
- BYPASS disks support is improved (ID#4999)
- Deep queuing of disk I/O requests is implemented (ID#3144)
- Audio Interface for AlphaStation (for models AS400, DS10, DS15) is implemented (ID#4717)
- Virtual PBXDA serial lines controller is implemented (ID#4776)
- DS15 and DS25 preloaded network adapter models (EW* or EI*) can be specified (ID#4886)
- New feature for AXP emulator's SRM console has been implemented to allow booting Tru64 from SAN volumes having no UDID (ID#5238)
- Guest-to-guest communication over virtual SCSI bus is implemented (ID#5044)
- Soft limit on the required host CPU number is set according to the "n_of_cpus" parameter (ID#5137)
- User part of Charon configuration (set by CFG file) is reflected in the log (ID#5156)
- Some improvements of the messages in the log (ID#5356)
- Minor update in Charon logs on Linux: kernel version and system release are added (ID#5393)
- Hardcoded host system limits are replaced with limits encoded in the license's memory block (ID#3263)
- Hardcoded upper limit on license check interval to 168 hours is increased (ID#5031, Case #00029470)
- New configuration options "license_use_any_key" and "license_id" are implemented (ID#5289)
- RPM script is improved for update process (ID#5139)
- hasp_srm_view is improved (ID#5027, ID#5214, ID#5243, ID#5304, ID#5322)
- TapeUtil (CharonCP) is improved (ID#3589)
- NCU is improved (ID#5133, ID#4950)
- Performance is improved (ID#2381, ID#3144)
- HASP libraries have been upgraded (ID#4709, ID#4450)
- All the libraries are linked statically (ID#4710)
- Instruction scheduling is updated with Ivy Bridge and Haswell tables (ID#4619)
- Preserving console saved state across product upgrades is implemented (ID#4782)
- PCI I/O Bypass controller is available. It allows to specify disk controllers as DI<x>, DR<x> and DU<x>, where x is selected according to VMS naming scheme (ID#4786)
- The default log mode has been set to "append" in the configuration templates (ID#4752)
- Updated CFG template files copyright message to year 2016 (ID#4720)
- CFG template files are updated to provide correct examples for "hw_model", "system_name", "architecture" and "dsrdb" parameters (ID#4697)
- Loop devices ("/dev/loop0") support as the storage containers is implemented (ID#4908)
Field Test and Production builds offer identical functionality (ID#4552)
- One license can serve Charon instances on one host or different hosts by choice (ID#4884)
- Software License transfer feature is disabled (ID#4787)
- This release is available on RHEL 6.x x64 as well (ID#4894)
- CentOS 7.x is now supported
- Fedora support has been removed
- "Charon.service" template is introduced instead of the old "Charon" template (ID#4968)
- NCU supports VLAN configuration (ID#4857)
- Tape Utilities package is added (ID#3589)
The "-key <key-ID>" option (when generating a C2V file using the "-c2v" option) is implemented in "hasp_srm_view" utility. This option is required if more than one license is visible. (ID#4965)
- VMware ESXi 6.x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x
- Please notice RHEL 6.x is not supported
Charon binaries are linked statically since this release. Charon-AXP and Charon-AXP can be installed on the same host (ID#4710)
- Charon Linux Toolkit is included in the distribution. It is a set of text based menu and utilities to simplify Charon operational procedures and provide Guest to Host communication channel.
- All emulated AXP models are installed by default. Allowed AXP models are controlled by Charon license (ID#4711)
- General performance improvement up to 10% for some usage scenarios (ID#4474)
- Internal Charon-AXP performance counters for various subsystems (CPU, DIT, Network I/O, and Disk I/O) may be streamed to the Charon log file. The log has to be sent to Stromasys for analysis (ID#4141)
- MPIO storage path support is implemented (ID#4328)
Write-through caching of virtual disks is implemented; it can be set with a parameter "use_io_file_buffering = write-through". By default it is switched off. (ID#4613)
- VLANs are supported (ID#4401)
- Sample configuration files are updated with correct values for "hw_model", "system_name", "architecture" and "dsrdb" parameters (ID#4697)
- The log file language is set to English (ID#4509)
- Charon log file format switched to UTF-8 (ID#4188)
Rotating log file switch can be configured to be triggered by maximum file size and time period (ID#4639)
- Charon console log rotation has been implemented (ID#4639)
- Software licensing (SL) is available. Software license is bound to physical system hardware components or virtual machine hardware components (ID#4344)
- Network licensing is available, for both hardware dongles (requires special dongle) and software licensing
- Charon instance counter on a Network license switched to instance mode from station/instance mode, which allows Charon instances to be spread around the network at user convenience. For example, a Network license with 6 Charon instances allows to run 3 instances on a first hosting server, 2 instances on a second hosting server, and one instance in a third hosting server. In the previous versions of Charon Network license controlled number of hosting systems and Charon instances per host system.
- Charon license check order can be managed via configuration file, Production and Backup license IDs can be specified (ID#4249)
- Software License can be relocated to another host
- New parameter "license_key_lookup_retry" has been introduced allowing to set a number of license retries with specified time interval for the license checks on Charon startup (ID#4399)
- License protection run time package (Sentinel) has been upgraded to the current stable version (ID#4209, 4711)
- Please notice that Charon HASP runtime environment is customized by Stromasys. Environment downloaded directly form SafeNet would not provide full functionality (specifically, Software Licensing will not work). Stromasys will maintain and distribute HASP environment updates as Charon product patches if necessary
- MTD utility supports SCSI Passthrough mode for tapes without Linux driver (ID#3927)
Charon utilities fully support mixed encoding in log files (ID#4642, 4646)
Network Configuration Utility (NCU) compatibility with supported OS versions has been improved, functionality extended (ID#4530, 4563, 4454)
hasp_srm_view utility can display either a particular license or all available licenses (ID#4618)
mkdskcmd utility does not allow to reduce vdisk size (ID#4506)
- DS10 emulator included into Charon-AXP/DS10 (ID#4176)
- PCI Pass Through support for FC is implemented (ID#2467)
- Physical PCI Fiber Channel presentation mode is supported (ID#4294)
- PCI-to-PCI bridges are implemeted (ID#4428)
- PCI device multifunction is fully supported (ID#4007)
- Charon's interface for external diagnostic data collection is implemented (ID#4385)
- Statistics counters for storage and network subsystems are implemented (ID#4141)
- CPU state transition (HALT <-> RUN) is logged with indication of reason for that (ID#4264)
- Several ways of TOY synchronization to Charon host are available (ID#4144)
- CPU IDLEing for SMP Alpha emulators is available (ID#4169)
- "hasp_view" is updated to allow managing SL licenses (ID#4172)
- EI device support - DE602 (Compaq NC3131) adapter is implemented (ID#4185, 4293)
- HALT command for Charon-AXP SRM console is implemented (ID#4239)
- "session license_key_id" parameter is introduced to manage multiple licenses available to Charon (ID#4249)
- A specific sample script is included to the kit allowing to run Charon as daemon (ID#4238)
- DM Multipath devices are supported now (ID#4328)
- mkdisk utility can transform a target disk size/type (ID#4329, 4506)
- Sentinel protection support is upgraded to the last versions (ID#4285)
- WebUI package is distributed separately now (ID#4364, 4497)
- EIx0_MODE envronment variable is introduced to configure DE602 (Compaq NC3131) adapter (ID#4366)
- Charon Network Configuration Utility (NCU) is introduced to help with configuration of the host network interface dedicated to Charon (ID#4373)
- "license_key_lookup_retry" parameter is introduced to check Charon license several times in specified interval between retries (ID#4399)
- Only English localization is supported (ID#4509)
- New version of VMinfo is integrated (ID#4486)
- The installation "update" feature is supported (ID#4227)
- NCU utility has been significantly improved (ID#4563, 4409)
- Emulation of AlphaServer DS15, DS25 and ES45 was added (ID#3523)
- A log rotation mechanism and improved filtering of log messages was implemented (ID#2281, 2608)
- Memory management was improved (ID#3197)
- The console log can be written into a separate text file (ID#3587)
- The "hasp_srm_view" utility was updated and improved. It is now able to work with C2V/V2C files and software licenses with the license locations definition (ID#3656, 3742, 4059)
- Log files are written in UTF-8 now (ID#4188)
- The WebUI can highlight lines in the log-viewer (ID#3677)
- The WebUI is able to display rotated Charon Message logs (ID#3725)
- KGPSA DGx devices support up to 5 digits (ID#3790)
- KGPSA pass-through mode is now available. The kit provides all the necessary drivers (ID#3467)
- CFG templates were updated (ID#3730)
- The "mkdskcmd" utility can report progress of disk creation (ID#3793)
- The HBA model is logged in Charon-AXP log file (ID#3801)
- The Console and PALcode versions were updated (ID#3870)
- EMULEX hardware/firmware revision levels are displayed while polling for units on KGPSA (ID#3932)
- Setting of the AlphaServer SERIAL_NUMBER was implemented (ID#4096)
- The MTD utility was improved (ID#4412, 3531, 3927)
- The kit may be distributed with DEMOMA protection (ID#4005)
- CPU IDLE was enabed for SMP Alpha emulators for production use (ID#4169)
- Charon-AXP version changed to 4.4. A license update is required (ID#3701)
- Charon-AXP is supported on VMware ESXi 5.1
- Charon Production license dongle could be replaced with Backup or Spare dongle, and vice versa, without stopping Charon. The backup/spare dongle is only accepted if Charon instance configuration parameters remain unchanged (ID#3690)
- Charon license expiration date can be updated without stopping Charon. Please notice that Charon instance configuration parameters for active instances should remain unchanged (number of CPUs, etc.) (ID #2966, #3206)
- Spare license dongles which are limited by both execution counter and expiration date are supported (ID#3303, #3311, #3435)
- hasp_srm_view utilitty can produce c2v files. Please refer to utility's help for details (ID#3656)
- hasp_srm_view utility detects Sentinel HASP Netwrok licenses as well as Sentinel HASP physical dongles with host ID relevant to them (ID#3637, 3539, 3742)
- Network license protection is supported by Charon-AXP. Network licensing is available from Stromasys as a service (ID#3095, 3546)
- Emulated KGPSA controller has been implemented, allowing DG devices to be configured in VMS and Tru64 (ID#2151)
- Physical disks, tapes, and CDROMs are supported (ID #2461)
- Physical drives connected as DG devices are supported (ID#3417)
- Linux virtual network interfaces are supported (ID #3077, #3088, #3111)
- Virtrual SCSI RX26 floppy drive is supported (ID #2996, #3057)
- Charon-AXP automatically replaces the old .ROM file after Charon upgrade (ID#3085)
- Configuration templates are updated; CPU architecture, AXP model, system ID, and LURT could be set in the config file. Charon rejects illegal set of parameters (ID#3260, 3307, 3511, 3541)
- "geometry" option has been added to the KZPBA controller (ID#3330)
- "geometry" CFG file option is introduced to specify size of tape image and, optionally, size of "early-warning" area at the end of tape image (ID#2561)
- CFG templates are updated, comments are improved (ID#3332)
- Console variable "date" is implemented in order to read date and time from the host OS (ID#2743)
- Virtual CDROM containers and removable disk containers can be switched on the fly (ID#3251, #2738)
- MTD utility has been included in the distribution kit (ID#3344)
- Additional Charon-AXP instances and products could be added to the license "on the fly".
- Sample configuration files are updated and improved (ID #3705, 3730, 3666, 3521)
- Charon-AXP comes with the maximum amount of RAM allowed by emulated model. Please refer to the product SPDs for the details.
- New Alpha emulated models are added to Charon-AXP/4100 product:
- AlphaServer 800 (a single CPU Alphaserver)
- AlphaServer 1000 (a single CPU Alphaserver)
- AlphaServer 1000A (a single CPU Alphaserver)
- AlphaServer 1200 (a dual CPU Alphaserver)
- All network connections have "Half Duplex 10BaseT" mode by default (ID#3041)
- IDLE Utility is supported for single CPU Alpha emulators (ID#3087, 3121, 3146)
- Installation procedure installs the End User Agreement document to the "/doc" folder in .txt and .pdf formats (ID#3122)
Problems fixed in previous builds
- Fixed a problem when BUGCHECK (and emulator crash) happened while performing BACKUP from bypass-enabled disk to vtape under OpenVMS Alpha (Support Case 00031622, ID#5521)
- Fixed failures on scan/rescan on PGB with Passthrough (Support Case 00031595, ID#5527)
- Fixed a problem when CHARON-AXP (AlphaServer GS320), V 4.9 B 19403 crashed at start in certain configurations (ID#5495)
- Fixed a problem with DS10L running Digital UNIX 4.0G: tu0: initialization failed (ID#5510)
- Fixed broken "license_key_lookup_retry" option functionality (ID#5538)
- Fixed a problem when core dump occurs while accessing PBXGA window over network connection (ID#5449)
- Fixed a problem with panic in cpu (0) when I try to migrate from charon 4.7 to 4.9 (Support Case 00031586, ID#5512)
- Fixed problem leading to the message "(95) Operation not supported: EWA0: Failed to query for max frame size. Assume 1518." (ID#4899)
- Fixed issue when Team0 interface "disappears" after being dedicated to Charon with NCU (ID#5434)
- Fixed problem where DE500BA Link is down in OpenVMS (ewa0) and Tru64 (tu0). (ID#5482)
- Fixed problem where AlphaServer GS320 crashes at start (ID#5495)
- Fixed problem where Emacs hangs OPA0 console by introducing new console implementation (ID#2033)
- Fixed problem where UETP fails on the tape (ID#5319).
- Fixed problem where CharonCP failed to install on OpenVMS 6.2-1H3 (ID#5329).
- Fixed problem where Telnet negotiation does not work correctly on serial console (ID#5401).
- Fixed a problem with timer loses on VMware (ID#4492)
- Fixed a problem when sometimes network does not work with PMAD-AA (ID#5067)
- Fixed a problem where timer works slowly on certain hosts (ID#5337)
- Fixed a problem where Charon reports "Can not change current ethernet address... Dynamic change of ethernet address is disabled or is not supported