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

Description

This menu option manages the CHARON virtual machines (guests) defined as services. It is used to create, delete, start and stop virtual machines on user request or upon system request (Linux server boot & shutdown).

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

Startup: the virtual machine 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 the defined localhost / port. This can also be performed using other utilities like putty. 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 virtual machine process is killed without proper guest shutdown.
- If the script exists, it executes the customer defined command lines to perform a proper shutdown (using ‘ssh’ or ‘expect’ for example). If the virtual machine process 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 during server shutdown 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: server boot time, number of CPUs and Memory Free / Total.

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

Column	Description
Emulator/Config File	Emulator used with its configuration file name (shortened)
CPU	Displays the number of CPUs by looking into configuration file settings (set n_of_cpus ...) first then using default value for the selected hardware. If no information is available, "-" is displayed instead. The number of CPUs displayed does represent the number defined in the configuration file or the default number of cpus for this hardware model. The real number of CPUs the virtual machine owns depends on the CHARON server hardware limitations, CHARON licenses and also licenses on the virtual machine side (Tru64 or OpenVMS)
Mem	Displays the amount of memory defined in the configuration file (if defined). If no information is available, "-" is displayed instead.
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 perform a clean shutdown of the guest. Can be: Not found: the script has not been created. If not found, a service stop request will induce a kill of the emulator process To customize: the script exists and a case line has been added for the specified configuration file. It must however be customized with some commands to perform a clean shutdown of the guest (OpenVMS or Tru64 virtual machine). For more information and examples, see Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script Case not set : the script exists but does not relate to the specified configuration file. This means it has either been created manually or initialized automatically by the menu and a new guest has been added after initialization.
B	Displays the auto_boot on server startup value, Yes or No.

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Depending on settings and virtual machine state, more information can be displayed
- Auto-restart settings (feature managed by systemd, described here: How to restart CHARON-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure)
- Description (not available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x)
- Start date
- Guest OS response (optional, see Service management - Create/Edit guest stop script / Optional guest display status script)
- Network Interfaces settings
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The third part displays the available options that are detailed in the Menu options chapter further.

Examples

Red Hat 7.x - Virtual machine up and running

Guest OS response returns error code 255, meaning the Tru64 system is not booted (still at SRM prompt)

Red Hat 7.x - Virtual machine restarting after failure

Enabling auto restart on failure is managed by systemd and is described here: How to restart CHARON-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure

Red Hat 7.x - Virtual machine stopped by administrator

Menu options