Charon-VAX V4.11 Build 204-09 for Linux - Release Notes
Version: 1 - Published:
Table of Contents
Please review this document before proceeding with installation of CHARON-VAX for Linux
Products included in the CHARON-VAX version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
In this document the terms CHARON and CHARON-VAX are used to refer to all the products below:
- CHARON-VAX/XM version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/XM PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/XK PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/XL version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/XL PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/6610 PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/6620 PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/6630 PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
- CHARON-VAX/6660 PLUS version 4.11 build 204-09 for Linux
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 VAX memory and on the number of CHARON instances running on one host. The minimum host memory = (2Gb + the amount of VAX memory emulated) per CHARON-VAX 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-VAX 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 introduced in build 204-09 since previous release (build 202-03)
- Sentinel Runtime upgraded to version 8.13.
- Special version of NCU (Network Configuration Utility) is included with Linux products for RHEL8
- 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.
- 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)
- New version of PuTTY, supporting "-title" option (ID#5590)
- The parameter "port_enable_mac_addr_change" is available on Linux version of Charon as well (ID#5594)
- Charon executable files print a summary of options on "-h" or "--help" command line option (ID#5578)
- Sample configuration files are updated (ID#5246, #5622)
Problems fixed in build 204-09 since build 202-02
- Fixed DEMNA implementation to prevent VAX 6000 Model 6x0 from hang while joining NI cluster on boot.
- Very new SCSI tape drives may fail if they are addressed via "physical_scsi_device" instance (as it is recommended). In this case their support is provided via "virtual_scsi_tape" instance (ID #5488)
- Fixed a problem leading to repeating "circuit down" situation immediately followed by STARTNET if DEMNA network interface is used (ID #5641
- Fixed a problem when specification of "log_rotation_period = 0" ("never") worked not correctly (ID#5580, Support Case 00031938)
- Fixed a problem with fast growing "Unrecognized frame destination" counter of DEMNA with customer application on VAX 6000 Model 610 (ID#5617)
- Fixed a problem when negotiated line speed is reported incorrectly at DECnet startup (ID#5626)
- Fixed a problem when sometimes PT.EXE (performance tool) may freeze (ID#5614)
- Fixed a problem with CPUSPINWAIT bugcheck of VAX 6620 (ID#5551)
- DEMNA logging mechanism is corrected (ID #5646)
- Serial lines logging is corrected (ID #5647)
Configuration changes required when upgrading from previous version(s) or migrating from Windows platform to build 204-09
- E1000E and VMXNETx VMware adapters are fully supported
- A CHARON license update is required. 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-VAX before installing the new version
- If VMware is used, it must be upgraded to version 5.x, 6.0, 6.5 or 6.7
- 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-VAX 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-VAX as a Linux service/daemon manually. See "Running as system service" chapter for details of how to configure CHARON-VAX 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-VAX 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-VAX configuration file should be reviewed if migrating from CHARON-VAX for Windows. Windows specific configuration parameters (for example, network adapter references) should be changed to Linux specific parameters. Please refer to the "Charon-VAX V4.11 for Linux - User's Guide" for details.
- 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
- 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 VAX/VMS during the negotiation phase
- The extension of the kfddb.cfg file, used to load extra pair of DSSI port on some VAX models, and kzdda.cfg file, used to load optional SCSI controller on some VAX models, has changed to .icfg. Existing configuration files have to be updated.
If you have any troubles with physical SCSI tape drives mapped to Charon, it is recommeded to change the corresponding instance name to "virtual_scsi_tape", for example, the original configuration
load physical_scsi_device pka_5 scsi_bus=pka scsi_id=5 set pka_5 container="/dev/sg3"
must be changed to
load virtual_scsi_tape pka_5 scsi_bus=pka scsi_id=5 set pka_5 container="/dev/sg3"
Note related to upgrade from previous version
- 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 204-09
- Network booting is supported with exception of VAX6xxx models.
- 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)
- In VAX-6310 UETP test fails if it runs from tape (ID#1942)
- CHARONCP SET MAGTAPE utility does not support TQK50/TUK50 controllers (ID#5398)
- In certain situations of several CHARON VMs running on one host with DSSI cluster configured, CHARON may hang up if load on the nodes is very high (ID#5426)
- MicroVAX II emulator may hang on booting MDM (ID#3382)
- CHARONCP SET MAGTAPE utility does not support TQK50/TUK50 controllers (ID#5398)
- Standalone backup is not bootable on MicroVAX3600 and MicroVAX II (ID#1870)
- CHAPI is not supported by this build. An attempt to load CHAPI component leads to failure: "Failed to create an instance of the component chapi" (ID#5414)
- Sometimes VAX 6310 does not boot guest OS. The workaround is to restart the emulator (ID#5384)
- Sometimes OpenVMS 7.2 freezes on booting. The workaround is to restart the emulator (ID#5396)
- A segmentation violation in module NCR53C94 may very rarely occur. If that happens, please provide CHARON configuration and log files to Stromasys (ID#4633)
- CMS commands may slow down due to a its internal design. STROMASYS provides (on request) a special OpenVMS utility to solve the problem (ID#4651)
- 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 Linux If a network cable is disconnected, CHARON-VAX might not detect that link is down (ID#4318)
- Unexpected exception (SCB + 004) machine check may happen on a VAX 4000 Model 700/705 under certain rare conditions (ID#4242)
- CHARON-VAX does not emulate graphical adapter. Applications hardcoded to use graphical hardware as their own interfaces may not function correctly
- 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 ( http://www.decuslib.com/decus/freewarev50/decxterm/decxterm ). Run this script, then run CHARON-VAX normally according to instructions in the Users's Guide. (ID#3030)
- By default a telnet session to the CHARON-VAX console port does not support ESC sequences of a VT100. To enable this open xterm, connect to CHARON-VAX and press "Ctrl-]" once connected then issue the "mode char" command to enable character mode. If it is also required to map the right part of the keyboard correctly, use the xterm started by Geoff Kingsmill's script (see above). (ID#3030). See this article for more: Input issues with telnet
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.
Host settings
VAX/VMS (autodetect mode)
1 Gbps full duplex
100 Mbps full duplex
100 Mbps full duplex
100 Mbps full duplex
100 Mbps half duplex
100 Mbps half duplex
10 Mbps full duplex
10 Mbps full duplex
10 Mbps half duplex
10 Mbps half duplex
- The firmware does not support the history of commands called with the up/down arrow keys.
- VMS 7.x Monitor utility shows the maximum CPU quantity instead of actually configured quantity.
- A Telnet session from OpenVMS running on emulated host may freeze 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 has no chance 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 telnet connection.
Please note that CHARON-VAX has not been tested with SAN attached storage volumes over 2TB in size.
New functionalities introduced in previous builds
- IEQ11 board is implemented on top of (couple of) NI PCI-GPIB interface cards (ID#4670)
- Linux bonding adapters are supported (ID#4750)
- 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 has been significantly improved (ID#5111, ID#4987)
- USB physical drive support is improved (ID#3323)
- Virtual lines implementation is improved (ID#4983)
- 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)
- DIT (ACE) is enabled starting from this release for all CHARON-VAX products
- CHARON performance is improved (ID#4769)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x is supported
- VMware ESXi 6.0 is supported
CHARON binaries are linked statically since this release. CHARON-VAX 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 VAX models are installed by default. Allowed VAX models are controlled by CHARON license (ID#4711)
- On 64bit Linux CHARON is able to address up to 3.5 GB emulated VAX RAM for /6630 and /6660 models
- MPIO storage path support is implemented (ID#4328)
- Full support for CI/DSSI virtual clusters (ID#4389)
- VLANs are supported (ID#4401)
- CHARON Sample configuration templates updated, some minor errors fixed (ID#4435)
- The log file language is set to English (ID#4509)
- CHARON console log rotation has been implemented (ID#4639)
- 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)
LK401-AT keyboard sequences (i. e. PF4 + Compose) is supported (ID#3837)
- 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, stability improved (ID#4209, 4711)
- Please notice that CHARON HASP runtime environment is customized by Stromasys. Environment downloaded directly from 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)
- ACE (DIT) has been significantly improved (ID#4423)
- Network Configuration Utility (NCU) is improved. Now it supports virtual adapters (TAP), VLAN, switching off the offload features etc (ID#4373)
- An interface for external diagnostic data collection is implemented (ID#42385)
- CHARON is able to support disabling network offload features (ID#4298)
- The help for "mkdskcmd" utility is improved (ID#4372)
- NI cluster support is improved (ID#4392)
- "license_key_lookup_retry" parameter is introduced to wait for CHARON license to be properly catched up (ID#4399)
- Usage of PCI-to-PCI bridges is available (ID#4428)
- "disconnect_timeout" parameter is introduced to deal with some attached SCSI devices operations delays correctly (ID#4438)
- "mkdskcmd" feature of transforming one disk to another one (having different type/geometry) has been significantly improved (ID#4506)
- CHARON log is only in English language now (ID#4509)
- VLAN is supported by CHARON (ID#4401)
Problems fixed in previous builds
- Fixed a problem when Charon-VAX hung on exit waiting for PUTTY to terminate (ID#5528)
- Fixed a problem when VAX Cluster hung in certain configurations (Support Case 00030570, 00030564, ID#5426)
- Fixed a problem when it was impossible to mount physical tape on "MicroVAX_3100_Model_98" model (ID#5488, 5489)
- Fixed a problem when sometimes network does not work with PMAD-AA (ID#5067)
- Fixed a problem leading to the message "(95) Operation not supported: EWA0: Failed to query for max frame size. Assume 1518." (ID#4899)
- Fixed an issue when Team0 interface disappearing after being dedicated to Charon with NCU (ID#5434)
- Fixed a problem where CharonCP failed to install on OpenVMS 6.2-1H3 (ID#5329).
- Fixed a problem where Charon reports "Can not change current ethernet address... Dynamic change of ethernet address is disabled or is not supported