When looking at the Charon-SSP product features, one can look at the differences between the different emulated models (as shown in Virtual Hardware and Guest OS Supported by Charon-SSP AWS).
Another comparison is the comparison between the different product variants. This section provides an overview of important differences between the product variants.
Contents
Product Variant Overview
The basic functionality of Charon-SSP in the different product variants is very similar. However, the product variants also have important differences.
Currently available Charon-SSP product variants:
Conventional product
Individual RPM installation
Barebone installation
Baremetal version
Amazon AWS version
Conventional product
This product variant exists in two flavors:
The product is installed as individual RPM packages on a supported Linux distribution and version.
The product is delivered as an ISO installation file that contains the operating system, the product RPMs and any additional software typically required (Barebone version).
The conventional product, especially when installed as individual RPM packages, offers the greatest flexibility for any customization and for integration into the customers’ system management environments.
The Barebone version offers additional features, but is more restrictive in what changes a user can make to the operating system.
Baremetal product
Charon-SSP Baremetal is a software appliance distributed as an ISO installation file. The host operating system is encapsulated and not visible to the user.
A customized GUI offers the necessary system management tools.
The Baremetal variant provides a fast and easy way to set up Charon-SSP if no major customization and integration requirements exist.
Amazon AWS version
Charon-SSP AWS provides an AMI image on Amazon Marketplace that can be used to easily launch a Charon-SSP host containing all the necessary software as an AWS instance.
Licensing is set up automatically at launch and usage is billed through AWS.
The instance configuration (e.g., network configuration) can be adapted to the customer’s requirement, but only a subset of a full Linux host operating system is accessible.
Product Variant Comparison
The following table lists important differences between the Charon-SSP product variants (as opposed to the differences between the different emulated architectures):
Functionality differences | Conventional product | Baremetal | AWS image | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RPM | Barebone | |||
| General differences | ||||
User shell access to host OS | Y | N | Y (limited) | |
Linux operating system upgrades from distribution repositories | Y | Restricted (kernel version dependencies) | N | N (package installation is possible if agreed by Stromasys) |
Special GUI for host management | N | Y | N | |
Special user accounts for Charon | N (4) | Y(5) | Y (6) | |
Licensing general | HL/SL/Network license | Cloud license server | ||
Changes to number of host CPUs / amount of memory possible | Y | N | ||
Internet connection required | N | Y | ||
Jumpstart | Y | N | ||
Network interface sharing (not recommended) | Y | N | ||
Configurable log path | Y | N | N | |
Additional tools | X11, iSCSI, NFS | X11, iSCSI, NFS, VNC | X11, iSCSI, NFS, VNC | X11 |
Emulated HW differences | ||||
4U+ and 4V+ support | N | Y | Y | Y |
PCI pass-through devices (Digi and GPIB) | N | Y (2) | Y (2) | N |
Digi AccelePort emulation | Y (2) | N | ||
Additional on-board serial lines | Y | N | ||
USB devices | Y (2) | N | ||
Parallel port | Y (3) | N | ||
Floppy drive | Y (3) | N | ||
Physical SCSI devices | disk, tape, CD-ROM, generic | disk | ||
External serial console via TCP | Y | N | ||
Physical serial ports | Y | Only via terminal server | ||
Host HW differences | ||||
Customer selectable hypervisor support | Y (1) | N (7) | ||
Notes
(1) Not for Charon-SSPU/4U+/4V+ (require VT-x/EPT support); supported Hypervisors are listed in Host System Requirements.
(2) Not on Charon-SSP/4M
(3) Charon-SSP/4M only
(4) A charon user is created on Barebone systems during installation. However, normal Linux account management is possible. Interactive command-line access not restricted.
(5) User charon for GUI operation, SFTP and VNC access, and Charon Manager integrated SSH tunnel. User sshuser for setting up the general SSH VPN tunnel. No interactive command-line access.
(6) User charon for GUI operation, SFTP access, and Charon Manager integrated SSH tunnel. User sshuser for setting up the general SSH VPN tunnel, and for interactive command-line access (limited command set); root access possible.
(7) Normal AWS instance types run on shared hardware; “metal” instance types are required for Charon-SSP/4U+/4V