Storage Directory Structure

Before you begin to configure Charon-PAR emulator instances and to install guest systems, it is advisable to create a directory structure for storing the data required by Charon-PAR emulator instances and guest systems.

Space required for the guest operating systems:

• Charon-PA3: a minimum of 10GB
• Charon-PA9: a minimum of 16GB

The numbers above are just basic guidelines for the minimum operating system installation. The space actually required depends on the individual configuration of the system to be migrated.

The following shows a sample directory structure. A structure similar to this will be used for the rest of the examples in this section:

The Disk and Tape directories will be used to store emulated logical devices, for example, disk containers. 

Ethernet Interface Preparation

Even though it is not mandatory, it is good practice to exclude the Ethernet interfaces that will be used by the guest system running on Charon-PAR from being managed by the NetworkManager. 

In a network environment controlled by the NetworkManager, the NetworkManager—if configured accordingly—will create and manage the interface configuration files. This may create conflicts with the requirements of the Charon-PAR guest system.

There are several options to prevent such problems:

• If the NetworkManager is not needed for other purposes, you can disable ( commands:  # systemctl stop NetworkManager; systemctl disable NetworkManager) and create the initial ifcfg-<interface> files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ manually.
• If the NetworkManager is required for other purposes,
  • make sure it uses the ifcfg-files (plugins=ifcfg-rh must be enabled in section [main] of /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf),
  • stop the NetworkManager (command: # systemctl stop NetworkManager),
  • exclude all interfaces required for the Charon-PAR guest(s) from NetworkManager control by adding the line NM_CONTROLLED=no to the respective ifcfg-<interface> file(s),
  • restart the NetworkManager (command: # systemctl start NetworkManager).

Example of a minimal ifcfg-<interface> file:

Please refer to your host system’s man-pages for additional information about the NetworkManager.

There are other settings required to disable certain off-load functions on interfaces dedicated to a Charon-PAR guest system. These settings are configured in the emulator configuration file and described further down in this document.