CHARON-AXP V4.9 Build 194-02 for Windows 64 bit - Release Notes

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Version: 6 - Published: Jan 17, 2020 

Table of Contents

Please review this document before proceeding with installation of CHARON-AXP

Products included in the CHARON-AXP version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64 bit

In this document the terms CHARON and CHARON-AXP are used to refer to the products below:

• CHARON-AXP/400 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/2000 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/4100 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/DS10 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/DS20 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/ES40 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/GS80 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/GS160 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

• CHARON-AXP/GS320 version 4.9 build 194-02 for Windows 64bit

Supported software platforms

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter Editions, 64 bit version

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Datacenter Editions, 64 bit version (please notice that only R2 revision is supported)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1)  Standard and Enterprise Editions, 64 bit version (please notice that only R2 revision is supported)

• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate (SP1) Editions, 64 bit version

• Windows 8.1 Professional Edition, 64 bit version

• Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise Editions, 64 bit version

• VMware ESXi 5.5 and 6.x up to 6.7 (requires a supported Windows operating system on top of a ESXi virtual machine)

• Microsoft Hyper-V (requires a supported Windows operating system on top of a Hyper-V virtual machine)

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.

• Windows UAC should be disabled.

• On VMware, E1000 network adapters must be used for CHARON. If you use VMware ESXi 6.5 and above, please refer to the user's guide, installation chapter.

• The Port Group Security Tab containing the CHARON network adapter(s) must be set to Promiscuous mode, MAC Address Change and Forged Transmit=Accept.

Important notes

1. Due to a change in Charon-AXP V4.9, if you set the log_repeat_filter parameter to "on" in the configuration file, the log file will not display important information related to the license(s). We then strongly recommend you update the configuration file and set the log_repeat_filter to "off" by adding the following line:

2. Secure boot is not supported by CHARON at the moment since in this case host OS will not accept signature of distributed NDIS drivers needed for CHARON networking. Disable secure boot or use CHARON without networking (select "Ignore" when installation procedure reports that NDIS driver is not signed).

New functionalities introduced in build 194-02 since previous release (build 183-02)

• Security improvements

  • 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)

• Performance improvements

  • Network performance and stability has 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)

  • Deep queuing of disk I/O requests is implemented (ID#3144)

• New configuration options and configuration changes

  • Virtual PBXDA serial lines controller is implemented (ID#4776)

  • DS15 and DS25 preloaded network adapter model (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)

  • "\\.\Scsi<N>:<X>:<Y>:<Z>" notation is not used anymore (ID#5051)

  • 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)

• New licensing options.

  • Hardcoded upper limit on license check interval to 168 hours is increased (ID#5031, Case #00029470)

  • Hardcoded host system limits are replaced with limits encoded in the license's memory block (ID#3263)

  • New configuration options "license_use_any_key" and "license_id" are implemented (ID#5289)

  • Should Charon lose access to its license, the product now offers a longer grace period and more frequent intermediate checks.

• Installation improvements

  • Charon installation wizard (InstallShell) is improved (ID#4231, ID#4915, ID#5081, ID#5176)

• CHARON utilities 

  • Charon VM Manager is improved (ID#4989, ID#4990, ID#5032, ID#5063, ID#5064, ID#5223, ID#5244, ID#5016, ID#5349) 

  • TapeUtil (CHARONCP) is improved (ID#3589)

  • "mkdskcmd" and MkDisk utilities are improved (ID#5033, ID#5142, ID#5143, ID#5225)

  • "HASP License Details" is improved (ID#5027, ID#5047, ID#5214, ID#5242)

  • LOGMOND utility is improved (LOGMOND invokes license_changed.bat when it sees message with code 0000040B) (ID#5000)

  • Charon Network Control Center is able to display configuration options for DE500AA, DEBNI and PMAD-AA  network cards (ID#5362)

Problems fixed in build 194-02 since build 183-02

• Fixed a problem when GS80, GS160 and GS320 hang on booting OpenVMS (ID#5345, ID#5357)

• Fixed an unability to start Charon due to an issue with Symantec "Sysfer.dll" library (ID#5323, Case #00030385)

• Fixed a problem with Incorrect display of the disks by Device Check Tool (ID#5359)

• Fixed a problem when "mtd" utility accepts a parameter w/o notification that this parameter is not allowed (ID#5300)

• Fixed a problem when AS4100 is not bootable from Tru64 V4.0B iso file (and from V4.0G, V4.0F, V5.1B) (ID#5291)

• Fixed a problem when NCC is unable to install NDIS packet driver on a first attempt (ID#4687)

• Fixed a problem with incorrect license information in the log file (ID#5287)

• Fixed an incorrect behavior of NCC, such as disabling WiFi on a host system, leaving some protocols enabled on dedicated to Charon adapter, etc (ID#5283)

• Fixed a problem with DE602 slow ftp transfer under Tru64 (ID#5134)

• Fixed a problem when NCC is unable to (completely) dedicate host's NIC to Charon (ID#4986)

• Fixed several NCC specific issues appearing on Windows 10 (ID#4659)

• Fixed a problem when FG* adapter is not able to release 2 buffer descriptors with buffer of 3392 bytes (this error is reported in the log) (ID#5268)

• Fixed a problem when Charon may start with expired license (ID#5265)

• Fixed a problem when Charon VM Manager incorrectly handles spaces in VM name while creating new VM (ID#5255)

• Fixed a problem with OpenVMS on Charon BUGCHECK while backuping a bypass disk to a virtual tape (ID#5239)

• Fixed a problem when "mkdskcmd" was not able to enlarge a disk image if its sized is more than 4Gb (ID#5237)

• Fixed memory leak in Charon VM Manager (ID#5230)

• Fixed a problem when "hasp_view" misses a lot of information if running with "-report" option (ID#5218)

• Fixed a problem when InstallShell cannot detect presence of v4.8 on the host (ID#5065)

• Fixed Charon crash on start if the specified network interface name is incorrect (on Windows 10) (ID#5055)

• Fixed a problem when USB flash drive works correctly, but Charon LOG file contains an error message relevant to the flash drive (ID#5053)

• Fixed a problem in NCC, if a network adapter has been dedicated to Charon its status is still displayed as "dedicated to HOST" (ID#5415)

• Fixed a problem when VM Manager "Show Console" button remained greyed on closing console (ID#5041)

• Fixed a problem when installation procedure fails to install since "logmond" utility is running (ID#5040)

• Fixed segmentation violation (exception with code 0000000B) on GS160 model (ID#5039, Case #00029492)

• Fixed a problem when GS models are not bootable from bypass disk (ID#5030)

• Fixed crash on each time when a specific Cobol module is compiled (ID#5010, Case #00029412)

• Fixed the ROM environment save format (ID#4975)

• Fixed performance degradation caused by slowing down I/O thread by DIT one (ID#5162)

• Fixed a problem when Tru64 backups were very inconsistent, they might take a lot of time comparing to OpenVMS backups (ID#5159)

• Fixed a data loss during backup to virtual tape, leading to lost savesets (ID#5144, Case #00029944)

• Fixed a problem when a virtual disk is "unloaded" on dismount and cannot be mounted again (ID#5136, Case #00029906)

• Fixed a problem when CHARON VM Manager was not able to use correct log file after its changing in configuration file (ID#5064)

• Fixed a problem when CHARON VM Manager was not able to change the name of VM (ID#5063)

• Fixed a problem leading to the situation when VM Manager's "Show Console" button remained greyed on closing console (ID#5041, ID#5057)

• Fixed loss of date/time synchronization after DST change (ID#5159, Case #00029445)

• Fixed a problem with Tru64 VDUMP occasional slowdown (ID#5159)

• Fixed a loss of date/time synchronization after DST change (ID#5029)

Configuration changes required when upgrading from previous versions of CHARON-AXP to build 194-02

• 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 Update Service for details

• Due to CHARON installation procedure update, if you upgrade from a version older than 4.8, it is required to uninstall all CHARON products before installing CHARON-AXP version 4.9. Please use the Windows Control Panel to do perform the operation.

• If you upgrade from version 4.8:

  • It is not necessary to save boot parameters at the SRM level (console). Parameters will be kept.

  • It is mandatory to update all existing CHARON Virtual Machines to make them run the latest version using the Virtual Machines Manager, VM Configuration tab - otherwise they will remain at V4.8.

• The following Microsoft Windows update has to be installed on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 and 2016 in order to support new CHARON drivers signed with SHA2 signature:
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/SecurityAdvisories/2015/3033929

• If VMware is used, it must be upgraded to version 5.5, 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 logs before starting the new version in order to avoid mixing character encoding in the log files

• Intelligent packet processing should be switched off for the network adapters dedicated to CHARON with "Network Control Center" (NCC) utility. Please refer to FTP, NFS, and general network issues with CHARON-AXP and CHARON-VAX on Windows for details

• The user that runs CHARON-AXP must have local administrator privileges and be a member of CHARON-GRP group (which is created during the CHARON installation)

• CHARON executables, 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

• CHARON-AXP configuration file should be reviewed if migrating from CHARON-AXP for Linux. Linux specific configuration parameters (for example, network adapter references) should be changed to Windows specific parameters. Please refer to the user manual for details.

• Please note that the actual network communication speed and mode are determined by the Windows network speed and mode settings.

• If CHARON-AXP is being moved to another hosting platform and direct SCSI access method is used to access some SCSI devices, the new hosting platform SCSI drivers should support the SCSIport method. If drivers supporting SCSIport method are not available, direct SCSI access cannot be used. This is a case for all Windows Server 2012 (R2) and Windows 8.1 systems, and is often seen for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (R2) systems. The recommended workaround for disk access is to use \\.\PhysicalDriveX method.
  If any other SCSI device is involved, please contact Stromasys. CHARON-AXP for Linux can be considered to work around the limitation.

• For network connections, interface="connection:..." syntax is preferred in the CHARON configuration file

• The packet_port keyword in the CHARON configuration file can be used on any hosting platform instead of the platform specific keywords ndis5_chpack_port and ndis6_chpack_port.
  For example, the CHARON configuration file lines:

  and

  can be replaced with:

• For the emulated network adapters the communication speed and mode is recommended to be commented out (set to automatic). If it is necessary, the example is below:

• On VMware, legacy_mode should be set in CHARON configuration for emulated AXP network adapters if Promiscuous mode cannot be set (this solution does not work in multi-instance configurations)

• Console definition syntax has been changed in the configuration file, please read the user's guide.

Known restrictions of build 194-02

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:

1. Enlarging ACE cach size

   Try this solution first. It is recommended to enlarge the ACE cash size at least in 2 times as it is shown in the following example:

   If this solution does not work for the specific guest OS tasks, apply also the next solution.
   
   

2. Setting specific ACE host options

   Set the following set of options in the configuration file:

   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 are not 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.

• In certain situations when a network adapter is dedicated to CHARON by NCC, its status is shown as if it is still dedicated to HOST (ID#5415).

• CHARON installation may fail with an error message "The installation process cannot replace hasplms.exe because the file is in use". It is known problem of the Sentinel HASP driver installer included to CHARON installation procedure as a 3rd party software. If you face this issue stop the hasplms.exe process manually and re-run CHARON installation procedure. See the Installation chapter below for more information.

• In certain situations mapping to SAN using Pass Through method may not be possible. In that case use the presentation mode instead (ID#5424).

• Renaming Charon VM is not available anymore (ID#5394).

• CHARON emulated console supports only 80 symbols in one line.

• In some 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) 

• CHARON cannot correctly define the total number of available CPUs on multi CPU groups systems (NUMA architecture, etc) - it reports only a number of the CPUs found in its first group. This problem will be fixed in future releases.
  As a workaround, enable "Node interleaving" from the BIOS (if available) to make the BIOS report the total number of available CPUs (as a part of one consolidated NUMA group) to the operating system.
  For example, on HP Proliant servers, the configuration sequence is the following:
  - Boot the server, press F9 and enter BIOS setup.
  - Select "Advanced Options" -> "Advance Performance Tuning Options" -> "Node Interleaving", set it to "Enabled".
  - Boot Windows.

• Hardware partitioning is not supported by CHARON. However the same hardware layout can be emulated with multiple CHARON instances on the same host

• SRM console shows the configured virtual disk names differently for same *.vdisk containers on each CHARON start (ID#4498)

• OpenVMS/AXP Version 8.4 installation CD media is not mountable under VMS V7.2-1H1. It is a VMS version restriction (ID#4054)

• Older AMD and Intel CPUs without support of CMPXCHG16B instruction could run CHARON-AXP translated code incorrectly. It is recommended not to use those CPUs. If such CPUs are detected on the hosting server, CHARON-AXP writes the following message in its log file:

• CHARON-AXP does not emulate LSI 53C810 SCSI controller. CHARON-AXP emulates Qlogic KZPBA SCSI controller, which is the reason for the earliest supported VMS version to be 6.2-1H3, earliest supported Tru64 version to be 3.2. (ID#2291).

• 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.

• OPA0 console of CHARON service does not appear if non "Administrator" user is starting the service (ID#3209)

• DS20 initialization might take long time on Windows Server 2008 R2 (ID#3194)

• Digital UNIX 4.0g fails to install on AS4100 if FC is configured. Specific Tru64 patches and firmware versions might be required. SAN device should be set to SCSI-2 mode (ID#3191)

• DE500BA device error count after boot is not 0 on OpenVMS 8.2/8.3 (ID#2963). There are no negative side effects

• Direct SCSI access only supports Windows SCSI devices which use a SCSIport driver. These include most of the device drivers on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (R2), but does not work on Windows 7 and Server 2008 (R2). If SCSIport is not supported (and Storport method is used instead), direct SCSI access cannot be used.
  This is most likely to be the case for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (R2) platforms.

• Performance tests could hang VMS 6.2-1H3 on emulated AS400.

• CHARON-AXP does not emulate VGA adapters, thus OPA0 is always a system console. Applications hardcoded to use OPA0 and TTA0 as their own interfaces may not function correctly.

• Network speed auto negotiation works with some restrictions (see the table below). It is always recommended to use full duplex mode on the hosting server.

• The virtual Alpha firmware is designed to show a maximum of 48 devices. However more devices are available to VMS and Tru64

• 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 does not apply to VMS 8.x

• Running Alpha Linux on the virtual Alpha is not supported

• 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.

• A Telnet session from OpenVMS running on emulated host freezes console output. The console output can hang when the virtual serial line sends XOFF/XON sequence. The TELNET client sends XOFF to the remote node's TELNET server to suspend output, but for unknown reason XON is discarded and remote node's TELNET server is unable to resume output. The console remains "frozen" as the remote site is not sending any output to it. When that happens, the local node is reachable over network, and can be unlocked by typing the 'break' character - usually "Ctrl-]" and exiting telnet session by typing "exit" at "TELNET>" prompt.

• Emacs hangs if the OPA0 console is used. Emacs works fine over an SSH connection.

• CHARON-AXP does not support Microsoft virtual network adapters (i.e. MS bridges, etc.).

• CHARON-AXP has limited support for teamed network adapters. They can be used only if the MAC address of the virtual VMS or Tru64 network adapter is not changed during CHARON-AXP session. In which case the desired MAC address should not be set manually in the properties of the network team or in the CHARON-AXP configuration file using the "station_address=XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX" configuration option.

• VMS 7.2-1 should be patched to the latest level in order to use Emulex FC adapters in pass-through mode.

• Please note that CHARON-AXP has not been tested with SAN attached storage over 2TB per disk 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:

  then "exit" (Ctrl-D) to multi user mode.

• A "CRC error" appears while "$ BACKUP/LIST/REW MKA100:..." on OpenVMS Alpha Version 8.4 (ID#2925)

• The virtual machine associated service running Charon-AXP V4.9 B19402 is created with a missing dependency to hasplms service. This can cause a service (virtual machine) defined for automatic startup to fail with license missing on Charon server boot. The current workaround consists in opening a cmd.exe command as an Administrator and running the following command (do not omit space after the equal sign): sc config <service> depend= hasplms/tcpip . This operation will have to be performed on each service update until a patch is delivered.

New functionalities introduced in previous builds

New functionalities introduced in version 4.8 build 183-02

• New platform support

  • Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise Editions, 64 bit version

  • VMware ESXi 6.5

• Performance improvements

  • Performance is improved (ID#2381, ID#3144)

  • HASP libraries have been upgraded (ID#4709, ID#4450)

  • Instruction scheduling is updated with Ivy Bridge and Haswell tables (ID#4619)

  • Preserving console saved state across product upgrades is implemented (ID#4782)

• New configuration options and configuration changes

  • CHARON must be installed as a Virtual Machine service using the new "CHARON VM Manager" utility. This utility also provides a central point to access all CHARON utilities (ID#4870, ID#4872)

  • 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)

  • Windows Registry path for CHARON products is updated to "HKLM:\Software\CHARON" (ID#4746)

• New licensing options.

  • 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)

  • A special utility "License Alert" is added. It monitors CHARON license expiration date and warns user about it (ID#4903). Jul 20, 2017 Note: automatic installation removed when installing Charon-AXP. It has now to be installed manually

  • Software License transfer feature is disabled (ID#4787)

• Installation improvements

  • New installation procedure is introduced starting from this version. It is not compatible with old CHARON installations, so the previous versions of CHARON must be uninstalled first.

  • Installation procedure is able to collect logs from executables it runs during installation/deinstallation (ID#4756)

  • New icons for utilities are introduced (ID#4973)

• CHARON utilities

  • New CHARON Virtual Machine Manager is introduced (ID#4836)

  • Tape Utilities package is added (ID#3589)

  • Network Control Center is not allowed anymore to change the configuration of a disabled network adapter (ID#4725)

  • MkDisk utility graphics have been updated (ID#4743)

  • Network Control Center is able to save log (ID#4755)

  • MTD utility supports CHARON-SMA format (ID#4842)

  • LOGMOND utility provides sample scripts (ID#4902)

New functionalities introduced in version 4.7 build 171-01

• New platform support

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (please notice Server 2012 is not supported)

  • VMware ESXi 6.0

  • Microsoft Hyper-V on Server 2012 R2

  • Please notice Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are not supported (ID#4498)

• CHARON product packaging

  • All emulated AXP models are installed by default. Allowed AXP models are controlled by CHARON license (ID#4711)

  • New icons and graphical design for CHARON executables, utilities and installation procedure (ID#4586, 4587, 4588, 4688)

• Performance improvements

  • General performance improvement up to 10% for some usage scenarios (ID#4474)

  • Deep I/O queuing is implemented for virtual SCSI adapters. Using up to 8 parallel I/O threads per disk and up to 16 per controller can significantly improve I/O performance if guest applications can benefit form multi threaded I/O (ID#3144)

  • 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)

  • Stability in FC Presentation mode has been improved (ID#4294)

• New configuration options and configuration changes

  • 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)

  • CARON 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)

• New licensing options. Please refer to User Manual and online Knowledge Base for details,  technical restrictions, and best practices (ID#2856, #4137, #4285)

  • 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

• CHARON utilities 

  • Logmond supports multi instance and rotating log configurations

  • MTD utility supports SCSI Passthrough mode for tapes without Windows driver (ID#3927)

  • DE602 network adapter is added to Network Control Center configuration page (ID#4655)

  • Network Control Center (Network Control Center) performs CHARON network driver cleanup on request (ID#4610)

  • CHARON utilities fully support mixed encoding in log files (ID#4642, 4646)

  • mkdskcmd utility does not allow to reduce vdisk size (ID#4506)

New functionalities introduced in version 4.6 build 163-03

• New "HASP View" utility is able to show all the available license keys and the content of the license they contain (ID#4461)

• CHARON log is created in English language only, the rest of localization are disabled (ID#4509)

• DS10 emulator is added to CHARON-AXP/DS10 product (ID#4176)

• EI device support - DE602 (Compaq NC3131) network adapter is added (ID#4185)

• Sentinel Software Licensing (SL) is fully supported (ID#4344)

• HASP View utility is able to display the multi site configuration license parameters and it is improved (ID#4059, 4165)

• PCI device multifunction is fully supported (ID#4007)

• CPU IDLEing is enabled for all Alpha emulators on OpenVMS (ID#4090)

• CHARON licenses can be controlled via CFG file now: it is possible to specify main and backup key (ID#4249)

• PCI-to-PCI bridges are supported (ID#4428)

• "license_key_lookup_retry" parameter is introduced. It allows for a number of retries with specified interval while accessing CHARON license at guest startup before CHARON stops.  (ID#4399)

• CHARON supports disabling network offload features with a special option in Network Control Center (Network Control Center) (ID#4298)

• CHARON can be monitored by specific counters with a help of an external diagnostic data collection (ID#4385)

• Since this release CHARON uses UNICODE for its log files (ID#4188)

• CHARON license protection has been significantly improved (ID#4209)

• Statistics counters for storage and network subsystems are implemented (ID#4141)

• Log file messages are extended with indications of CPU "Halt"/"Run" transitions (ID#4264)

• New parameter "sync_to_host" is implemented. It allows to keep TOY time always synchronized with the host's time and disable undesirable updates to the TOY from guest OS. (ID#4144)

• CHARON-AXP SRM console "halt" command is implemented (ID#4239)

• CFG templates have been corrected and updated (ID#4240, 4369, 4377)

• MkDisk utility is able to extend the existing disk container size without destroying its content (ID#4329)

• EIx0_MODE environment variables of DE602 (Compaq NC3131) are implemented (ID#4366)

• HASP driverless mode is supported (ID#4455)

• "logmond" utility is significantly improved. Now it supports CHARON rotating log and multi-instances configurations - it is able to monitor log files of all CHARON instances running as services on host.

• Networking part (carrier sense logic) is improved (ID#4339)

• Network Control Center supports VLAN (ID#4453)

• Physical PCI Fiber Channel Presentation Mode is supported (ID#4294)

• The performance improvement package included into the kit is updated (ID#4424)

New functionalities introduced in version 4.5 build 153-07

• CHARON-AXP is supported on VMware ESXi from version 4.1 Update 1 up to version 5.5

• New emulated models AlphaServer DS15, AlphaServer DS25 and AlphaServer ES45 have been added to corresponding products CHARON-AXP/DS10, CHARON-AXP/DS20, and CHARON-AXP/ES40 (ID#3523)