Console

General Description

CHARON-AXP offers a one- (OPA0) or two-port serial console, depending on the specified HP Alpha model.

The AlphaServer DS10, AlphaServer DS10L, AlphaServer DS15, AlphaServer 400, AlphaServer 800, AlphaServer 1000 and AlphaServer 1000A has an additional on-board serial line controller providing a serial line TTA0.

The regular console is already preloaded, so you need to specify just its mapping to the host resources, for example:

load physical_serial_line OPA0 line="COM1:"

In case of the TTA0 console the mapping looks like that:

load virtual_serial_line TTA0 port=10000
set COM2 line=TTA0

The first line specifies a mapping to a unique TCP/IP host port ("10000" in this example), while the second line connects this mapping (TTA0) to the on-board serial line controller having the name "COM2" in CHARON environment.

Refer to this section for details of mapping.

Back to Table of Contents

Console Parameters

CHARON-AXP console line TTA0 (COM2) has the following parameters:

All the values in the following tables are case insensitive

communication

Parameter	communication
Type	Text string
Value	"ascii" - for connection to terminals (default) "binary" - for binary (packet) protocols, which are used mainly for communicating with PLCs

line

Parameter line

Type Identifier

Value

This parameter is used to connect a particular serial line mapping interface to the controller.

Example:

set COM2 line=TTA0

Example

set COM2 communication="binary"

Back to Table of Contents

Mapping Serial line controllers to system resources

Types of serial line mapping:

Type

Function

physical_serial_line

This type of mapping associates a COM port on a host system with an emulated HP Alpha serial line controller virtual "line".

The COM port can be a physical hardware port or a logical COM port.

virtual_serial_line

This type of mapping associates a network connection on the host system with an emulated HP Alpha serial line controller virtual "line"

Example:

load physical_serial_line TTA0

Back to Table of Contents

physical_serial_line

line

Parameter line

Type Text string

Value

A defined COM port on a host system in the form of "\\.\COMn" (or "COM<n>:")

Example:

set OPA0 line="\\.\COM1"

baud

Parameter baud

Type Numeric

Value

Forces the baud rate of the corresponding COM port to be a specified value.

The variety of supported values depends on the underlying physical communication resource (COM port). The most widely used values are: 300, 1200, 9600, 19200, 38400.

Example:

set OPA0 baud=38400

break_on

Parameter break_on

Type Text string

Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a HALT command.

This parameter works only for the console line.

Specify the following values: "Ctrl-P", "Break" or "none" ("none" disables triggering a HALT condition).

If your guest operating system is OpenVMS in addition to "none" setting you have to set a specific console parameter "controlp" to "off" in the following way:

>>> set controlp off
>>> power off

The second line is to preserve the ROM settings.

Example:

set OPA0 break_on="Ctrl-P"

The default value is "Break".

This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

stop_on

Parameter stop_on

Type Text string

Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-AXP to exit.

Specify the one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition).

Example:

set OPA0 stop_on="F6"

The default value is "none".

Setting "F6" triggers the STOP condition upon receipt of the "<ESC>[17~" sequence. Terminals usually send these sequences by pressing the F6 button

This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

log

Parameter log

Type Text string

Value

A string specifying a file name to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where the log files for each individual session will be stored.

If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-AXP automatically enables creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-AXP does not create a console log.

Examples:

set OPA0 log="log.txt"

set OPA0 log="C:\Charon\Logs"

Only existing directory can be used as a value of the "log" parameter.

log_file_size

Parameter log_file_size

Type Text string

Value

If log rotation is enabled, the log_file_size parameter determines the log file size threshold at which the log is automatically rotated.

"unlimited" or "0" (default) - the feature is disabled
"default" - default size is used (4Mb)
<size>[KMG] - size of the current log file in bytes with additional multipliers:
- K - Kilobyte - multiply by 1024
- M - Megabyte - multiply by 1024*1024
- G - Gigabyte - multiply by 1024*1024*1024

Examples:

set OPA0 log_file_size="default"

set OPA0 log_file_size=10M

Minimum log file size is 64K, maximum is 1G. Setting size less then 64K effectively makes the log file unlimited.

Example of mapping a console line to a host physical serial line

load physical_serial_line OPA0 set OPA0 line="\\.\COM1"

Back to Table of Contents

virtual_serial_line

host

Parameter host

Type Text string

Value

A remote host’s IP address or hostname (and optionally a remote TCP/IP port number) for the virtual serial line connection. If omitted, the virtual serial line does not initiate a connection to the remote host and will listen for incoming connection requests.

Specify the value in the following form:

set OPA0 host="<host-name>[:<port-no>]"

If the "<port-no>" is not specified, the virtual serial line uses the TCP/IP port number specified by the "port" parameter (see below).

port

Parameter

port

Type

Numeric

Value

The TCP/IP port number for the virtual serial line. A virtual serial line always listens on this port for incoming connection requests.

If multiple virtualized machines are running on a server, ensure the port number is unique across the platform.

application

Parameter application

Type Text string

Value

An application (a terminal emulator is assumed in most cases) to be started on initialization of this serial line emulation. The specified application startup string may contain all required parameters.

Example:

set OPA application = "putty.exe -load OPA0"

In this example the terminal emulator application: "putty" is started with the parameters "-load OPA0" telling it to load a specific saved session named "OPA0", (created separately) from the host registry.

The "application" parameter is often combined with a "port" parameter:

set TTA0 port = 10003 application = "putty.exe -load TTA1"

break_on

Parameter break_on

Type Text string

Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over a virtual serial line triggers a HALT command.

Specify one of the following values: "Ctrl-P", "Break" or "none" to disable triggering a HALT condition. The commands are case insensitive.

If your guest operating system is OpenVMS in addition to "none" setting you have to set a specific console parameter "controlp" to "off" in the following way:

>>> set controlp off
>>> power off

The second line is to preserve the ROM settings.

Example:

set OPA0 break_on="Ctrl-P"

The default value is "Break".

This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

stop_on

Parameter stop_on

Type Text string

Value

Specifies what byte sequences received over the virtual serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-AXP to exit.

Specify one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition). The commands are case insensitive.

Example:

set OPA0 stop_on="F6"

The default value is "none".

Setting "F6" triggers the STOP condition upon receipt of the "<ESC>[17~" sequence.

This parameter can be specified only for COM1 (OPA0) console

log

Parameter log

Type Text string

Value

A string specifying the filename to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where log files for each individual session will be stored.

If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-AXP automatically enables the creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-AXP does not create any console log.

Examples:

set OPA0 log="log.txt"

set OPA0 log="C:\Charon\Logs"

Only existing directory can be used as a value of the "log" parameter.

log_file_size

Parameter log_file_size

Type Text string

Value

If log rotation is enabled, the log_file_size parameter determines the log file size threshold at which the log is automatically rotated.

"unlimited" or "0" (default) - the feature is disabled
"default" - default size is used (4Mb)
<size>[KMG] - size of the current log file in bytes with additional multipliers:
- K - Kilobyte - multiply by 1024
- M - Megabyte - multiply by 1024*1024
- G - Gigabyte - multiply by 1024*1024*1024

Examples:

set OPA0 log_file_size="default"

set OPA0 log_file_size=10M

Minimum log file size is 64K, maximum is 1G. Setting size less then 64K effectively makes the log file unlimited.

Example 1

Mapping a console line to a host TCP/IP port 10003 and starting a "Putty" terminal emulator with a configuration "OPA" directing it to connect to the port 10003:

load virtual_serial_line OPA0 set OPA port = 10003 application = "putty.exe -load OPA0"

Notes on "virtual_serial_line" options

Use the combination of "port" and "host" parameters as follows to connect a 3rd party terminal emulator or similar program.
load virtual_serial_line TTA0 host="192.168.1.1" port=10000
In this example CHARON-AXP connects to port 10000 of a host with TCP/IP address "192.168.1.1" and at the same time it accepts connections on local port 10000.
It is possible to specify a port on a remote host (note that CHARON always acts as a server). The syntax is:
load virtual_serial_line TTA0 host="192.168.1.1:20000" port=10000
In this example CHARON-AXP accepts connection on local port 10000 and connects to remote port 20000 of a host with TCP/IP address "192.168.1.1"

Note: the examples above are mainly used for inter-CHARON communications. They are used to connect CHARON-AXP to an application that communicates to CHARON-AXP as described below.

Example 2

Two CHARON systems connected to each other:

On host "A":

load virtual_serial_line TTA0 port=5500 host="B"

On host "B":

load virtual_serial_line TTA0 port=5500 host="A"

On these two hosts, executing CHARON-AXP, the two TTA0 lines connect to each other, thus creating a "serial" cable between the two emulated HP Alphas. The sequential order in which the instances of CHARON-AXP are started makes no difference.

Back to Table of Contents