Charon-AXP V4.10 Build 202-03 for Windows 64 bit - Release Notes

Version: 5 - Published: Jul 8, 2020

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

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

• Charon-AXP/400 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/2000 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/4100 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/DS10 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/DS20 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/ES40 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/GS80 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/GS160 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• Charon-AXP/GS320 version 4.10 build 202-03 for Windows 64bit

• 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.

  • If release Id 2004 is installed (run "winver" to check), the installation will fail with Windows blue screen. Please read this article to solve the problem: Charon-AXP/VAX/PDP installation fails on Windows 10 Professional version 2004.

• 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)

• 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, USB power saving management and the screen saver should be disabled on the hosting server.

• Windows UAC should be disabled.

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

1. Due to a change in Charon-AXP V4.10, 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" (default value) 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).

• Charon stability is improved (ID#5483, 5331)

• Support of modern SAN (MSA-2050) is improved over Emulex PT (ID#5421)

• Log is flushed regularly and asynchronously to facilitate online LOG monitoring by third-party tools (ID#5532)

• Correct installation of x64 HostPrint utility in all Charon products is implemented (in the folder beside the corresponding executables) (ID#5570)

• 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)

• EXE/DLL copyright is updated (ID#5503)

• The value of "log_repeat_filter" parameter is "off" by default (ID#5405)

• Licensing mechanism is improved (ID#5375, 5458, 5459)

• Network License management processing changes (ID#4631)

• Redistributable Visual C++ runtime is upgraded (ID#5385)

• Installation procedure detects inconsistent and/or damaged installation and deals with it properly (ID#5476)

• In "Repair" mode Installation, the procedure keeps the current Charon installation in case of errors (ID#5477)

• All Charon components are installed independently for every build (ID#5504)

• Patches to Charon kits is able to keep all the previous executables independently from each other (ID#5506)

• Backup patch scripts areinstalled for each build independently (ID#5517)

• Virtual Machines renaming feature is disabled (ID#5394)

• "hasp_view" command line mode is extended to output all available licenses details to a file (ID#5442)

• NCC utility is improved (ID#5497)

• 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 patch script created incorrect backup directories (ID#5516)

• Fixed a problem when CHARON-AXP (AlphaServer GS320), V 4.9 B 19403 crashed at start in certain configurations (ID#5495)

• Fixed HOSTprint working on Windows 10 (ID#5054)

• Fixed broken "license_key_lookup_retry" option functionality (ID#5538)

• Fixed a problem with incorrect selection of default product while creating VM with Charon Manager (ID#5530)

• Fixed a problem when Charon VMs (services) lost depence on HASPLMS (ID#5529)

• 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 an error during installation on Windows Server 2016: "NDIS Packet driver is not installed" (ID#5544)

• Correct Charon service dependencies persist now when upgrading existing Charon VMs (ID#5546)

• InstallShell graphics is updated for correct slogan (ID#5558)

• MkDisk utility graphics is updated for correct slogan (ID#5562)

• Fixed a problem when HOSTprint stays running when emulator process terminates (ID#5505)

• Fixed a problem when InstallShell defined versions of VC redistributives installed incorrectly (ID#5494)

• Fixed a problem with a situation when interval timer interrupts are missed and lost on new 4.00 GHz hosts (ID#4446)

• Fixed a problem with timer loses on VMware (ID#4492)

• Fixed a problem where sometimes network does not work with PMAD-AA (ID#5067)

• Fixed a problem with long duration of Charon-AXP installation (ID#5360)

• Fixed a problem where multiport serial card does not work on multiprocessing AXP models (ID#5406)

• Fixed a problem with incorrect behaviour of action for Edit Configuration in VM Manager (ID#5413)

• Fixed a problem where host NIC dedicated to Charon is shown as dedicated to host in the Network Control Center (ID#5415, 5429)

• Fixed a problem where there is no network connection when "packet_port" is in legacy mode (ID#5427)

• Fixed a problem where virtual PBXDA looses bytes (TXA0 is not able to receive 0xFF and next 1 character) on input (ID#5436)

• Fixed a problem where Charon reports "Can not change current ethernet address... Dynamic change of ethernet address is disabled or is not supported" if port_enable_mac_addr_change is set to false (error code 00000113) as an error instead of a warning (ID#5443)

• Fixed a problem with unexpected forced Windows reboot during Charon installation (ID#5455)

• Fixed a problem where in "Repair" mode (only) Installation, the procedure processes running "logmond" incorrectly (ID#5479)

• Fixed a problem where Installation procedure detects versions of installed VC++ redistributives incorrectly (ID#5494)

• Fixed problem where Emacs hangs OPA0 console by introducing new console implementation (ID#2033)

• Fixed problem where NCC fails to install NDIS driver (ID#5177)

• Fixed problem where CharonCP fails to install on OpenVMS 6.2-1H3 (ID#5329). 

• Fixed problem where sometimes VMS 7.3-2 hangs on booting from DGA disk (ID#5377).

• Fixed problem where Charon crashes when emulated NIC is bound to a teamed host NIC on VMWare (ID#5380).

• Fixed problem where Virtual Machine Manager does not pick up changes in log file specification and configuration names if the VM name contains spaces (ID#5390).

• Fixed problem where no RDP warning is displayed in local license key environment (ID#5400).

• Fixed problem where Telnet negotiation does not work correctly on serial console

• 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 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 4.10. Please use the Windows Control Panel to perform the operation.

• If you upgrade from version 4.8 or 4.9:

  • 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.

• The following Microsoft Windows update has to be installed on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 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, USB power saving 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 since v4.9, please read the User's Guide to apply it if you have Charon version prior to v4.9

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 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:

   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.

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.

• HOSTprint does not work on Windows 10 (ID#5054)

• 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)

• It is impossible to mount physical tape on some new physical devices (ID#5488)

• 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).

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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 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 "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)