Service management (Start, Stop, Manage automatic boot & shutdown)

Description

Guests (CHARON virtual machines) are managed as a service. This allows for starting and stopping guests on user or system request (Linux server boot & shutdown).

The service works with a guests list containing the HW emulator name, configuration file and, optionally, the auto_boot (at service level, not same as SRM levle) on server startup parameter:

Startup: the HW emulator is executed in detached mode (using ‘-d’ parameter) and then requires the console to be set as virtual serial line.
- Connection to the console will be performed using telnet on defined localhost / port. If there is more than one guest on the server, guests are started in parallel.
- Before the guest starts, the network interfaces used will be checked and all the offload parameters will be set offline
Shutdown: a common shutdown script can be created for guests shutdown. See "Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script" for details.
- If the script does not exist, the HW emulator is killed without proper guest shutdown.
- If the script exists, it executes the customer defined scripts to perform a proper shutdown (using ‘ssh’ or ‘expect’ tool for example). If the HW emulator is still running after execution, the stop operation is considered as failed so for Linux systems not using systemd (Red Hat 6) the script must stop the emulator either by sending a “power off” at SRM prompt (AXP) or F6 key (VAX) with ‘expect’ or just by killing the process. For Linux systems using systemd (Red Hat 7 and Fedora), the process is killed by the system.
- If there is more than one guest on the server, guests are stopped in sequential mode based on their order in the guests list. This order can be modified from the menu. This is valid only for Linux systems not using systemd (Red Hat 6). For other systems, the services description files will have to be modified to add dependencies using Before= or After= for example. For more information, see manpages: # man systemd.unit

Menu description

The first part of the menu displays server information like server boot time, current time (at display), number of CPUs and Memory Free / Total.

The second part displays the list of emulated machines (guests) managed. Column details:

Column	Description
Emulator/Config File	Emulator used with its configuration file name (shortened)
CPU	Displays the number of CPUs: for VAX: always 1 (except for VAX66x0) for AXP: based on configuration files settings (set n_of_cpus ...). If the information is not found, using default value for the selected hardware, "-" is displayed instead.
Mem	Displays the amount of memory defined for the guest
State	For Red Hat 6 can be either RUNNING, STARTING, STARTING/ALL (if all guests have been started at the same time), STOPPED. If the guest is in STOPPED state, an additional information will be displayed: REQUESTED: the service has been stopped by user request or has not been started on Linux server boot due to boot parameter set to off FAILURE: the guest process failed For Red Hat 7 and Fedora (using both `systemd`) can be either ACTIVE, ACTIVATING, INACTIVE, DEACTIVATING, FAILED or UNKNOWN If the guest is in STOPPED state, an additional information will be displayed: REQUESTED: the service has been stopped by user request or has not been started on Linux server boot due to boot parameter set to off FAILURE: the guest process failed
Stop script	Displays the status of the stop script used to stop perform a clean shutdown of the guest. Can be: To customize: the script exists and a case has been added for the specified configuration file. It must however be customized with your commands to perform a clean shutdown of the guest (OpenVMS or Tru64 virtual machine). For more information, see Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script Case not set : the script exists but does not relate to the specified configuration file. This mean it has either been created manually or initialized automatically by the menu and you added a new guest. Not found: the script has not been created. In this case, a service stop request will induce a kill of the emulator process
B	Displays the Boot no server startup value, yes or no.

.

The third part displays the available options that are detailed below.

Examples

Red Hat 6 - guest up and running

Red Hat 7 - guest up and running

Due to improvements added in service management with systemd, more information is displayed on the service

Red Hat 7 - guest failed due to kill signal sent by the administrator

Menu options