Sold by: Amazon Web Services
Deployed on AWS
Virtualization for SPARC allows the rehost and migration of SPARC-based Solaris applications onto AWS.
4.5
Overview
Provided by AWS with Stromasys, Virtualization for SPARC emulates classic SPARC V8/V9 hardware. It relies on Charon-SSP which replicates the virtual SPARC hardware on industry-standard x86 computer systems. The emulation is fully binary compatible with SPARC hardware, including storage, Ethernet, and serial line I/O. The Charon-SSP virtual layer behaves as SPARC hardware and is compatible with SunOS, Solaris, and associated applications. This compatibility allows applications to be quickly re-hosted in the Charon-SSP virtualized environment, bypassing software code conversion, changes, or replacement.
Using Virtualization for SPARC necessitates Solaris, Linux, and Stromasys skills. Rehosting and migrating SPARC-based Solaris applications requires professional services engaged as part of a migration project. Please contact and engage your AWS representative for guidance. You can also contact an AWS specialist at mainframe@amazon.com .
Virtualization for SPARC replaces SPARC systems from the Sun4m, Sun4u, and early Sun4v (pre-Oracle) family. Virtualization for SPARC supports versions SunOS 4.1 to Solaris 11.4. Solaris is Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) for Virtualization for SPARC, and customers must make their own Solaris ISO image available for the initial install, after which the original filesystems from the legacy SPARC system may be migrated. Please note that this solution requires customers to review their specific licensing agreements pertaining to Sun/Oracle SPARC and Solaris.
Highlights
- BUSINESS CONTINUITY. Minimal disruption, as all applications, middleware, and data remain as is, and migrate unchanged.
- REDUCED RISK. Charon solutions diminish your risk of unplanned downtime by removing the dependency upon classic hardware
Details
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Delivery method
Delivery option
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Latest version
Operating system
AmazonLinux 2023
Deployed on AWS
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Pricing
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time. Alternatively, you can pay upfront for a contract, which typically covers your anticipated usage for the contract duration. Any usage beyond contract will incur additional usage-based costs.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
c5.2xlarge Recommended | $5.00 |
m7i.2xlarge | $5.00 |
z1d.xlarge | $2.50 |
r7iz.8xlarge | $20.00 |
m5zn.2xlarge | $5.00 |
r7iz.16xlarge | $40.00 |
m7a.4xlarge | $10.00 |
m7i.8xlarge | $20.00 |
m7i.4xlarge | $10.00 |
m7i.16xlarge | $40.00 |
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Additional details
Usage instructions
Connecting to Instance:
To connect to your instance, you will need to use SSH over port 22. The default username for connecting is sshuser. For further information about the standard AWS method of connecting to an instance, see information described here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstances.html
Basic configuration of the environment includes:
- Install and Initializing the Charon Manager on a client machine, either Windows or Linux
- Get your vdisk or iso image to the Charon instance on AWS.
- Connect Charon Manager to Charon instance, create a virtual SPARC VM, and configure the vdisk and other items
- Startup the virtual SPARC VM via Charon Manager
Please see Virtualization for SPARC on AWS with Stromasys documentation for further configuration information: Charon-SSP Version 5 for AWS Cloud - Getting Started
Additional Details:
- There are no security keys or credentials in place that need to be rotated
- There is no customer data that is collected in order for this software to function
Resources
Vendor resources
Support
Vendor support
Support is available through forums, technical FAQs and the Service Help Dashboard. Paid support is available.
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
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Customer reviews
Kumaresan Vedagiri
Modernization of legacy workloads has become seamless and preserves existing operating systems
Reviewed on Jul 10, 2026
Review provided by PeerSpot
What is our primary use case?
I have been migrating a lot of OpenVMS servers in Stromasys Charon on the Cloud products, and recently I have migrated two of Stromasys Charon on the Cloud products on the Azure cloud. I have been mostly working with Stromasys Charon on the Cloud directly and completing the migration for them from the organization point of view.
What is most valuable?
Stromasys Charon on the Cloud is able to emulate the hardware which is not in the live, real world. That is a real advantage. Additionally, they have managed to survive in this business for the last 20 years.
What needs improvement?
I am getting a good response from them, so I do not think there is anything to be improved.
As part of this modernization, every organization wants their environment to be put up on the cloud. Legacy operating systems such as Tru64, HP-UX, and OpenVMS cannot be ported on a cloud directly. We need a product such as Stromasys Charon on the Cloud to help us, and Stromasys Charon on the Cloud is also available on all major clouds including Azure , Oracle, and Google Cloud as a software as a service. This is a good move.
Every organization is moving towards the cloud as part of modernization, and legacy operating systems pull organizations to stay on-premises. Since Stromasys Charon on the Cloud is available, it provides good solutions that allow moving all legacy operating systems without any recompiling of the legacy code on the cloud, which is a positive thing.
Recently, I started to use Linux, but before it was primarily Windows.
Recently, it was Azure.
Scalability is based on the license that Stromasys Charon on the Cloud issues to us. They provide licensing based on recommendations. It is not the cloud where we can scale up on the fly. We have to bring the systems down.
For how long have I used the solution?
23 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Challenges were present maybe six to seven years ago, but they are trying to fix them one by one. I have not recently encountered any challenges. All my feedback is from the technical perspective, not from the product or customer side. I was dealing with these teams from a technical standpoint.
Reliability and stability are good. They wanted to ensure that any scanning and any new level of security scanning is not affecting any of the ports they are using. For example, security scanning can crash the emulator services. They need to look into this.
I do not face anything because Stromasys Charon on the Cloud is a lift-and-shift solution for legacy operating systems. There are only very minor changes to be done at the operating system level as part of migration. There will be no major coding rewrites and other things. I have not encountered anything till today.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is based on the license that Stromasys Charon on the Cloud issues to us. They provide licensing based on recommendations. It is not the cloud where we can scale up on the fly. We have to bring the systems down.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support of Stromasys Charon on the Cloud is doing good. Even if we have any problem on the operating system, since they have a good rapport, they are trying to help us with it. This does not mean whether they actually signed for that particular support or not. They are trying to help us until it comes to an escalation. Their technical support is very good for us.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other products such as AVT and free AXP which was provided by some other vendors. I could say the competitor is AVT. They are good enough with that. The cost compared to Stromasys Charon on the Cloud, compared to the cost for free AXP and SimH as well as AVT is very much less, and the provided solution is also good. This could become a major criteria if Stromasys Charon on the Cloud continues to raise their prices.
What about the implementation team?
I am the one deploying Stromasys Charon on the Cloud. I get a product from them, and I enforce my organization to sign up with an agreement with them. I deploy it myself since I have enough knowledge to do so. When any new features come in, I read it and determine whether it is really required. I have deployed Charon-VAX and Charon-Alpha.
Setup depends on where the customer wants it. If they want to put it on physical hardware, they have to get one of the operating systems, whether it is Windows or Linux. I have to get ready with the configurations for Stromasys Charon on the Cloud product, whether it is an Alpha or VAX. Based on the hardware types, I can relate it, and I can do all my customizations in the configuration file. I can get all the data disks into this configuration file and boot up the VMS, Tru64, or HP-UX.
What was our ROI?
Return on investment is based on the license that Stromasys Charon on the Cloud issues to us. They provide licensing based on recommendations. It is not the cloud where we can scale up on the fly. We have to bring the systems down.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before it was good, but recently, I heard that Stromasys Charon on the Cloud products which were recently migrated to some other organizations have been changed a lot in pricing, and the price has been increased significantly. From my perspective as a technical person, this is not acceptable because before they used perpetual licenses, but now their perpetual license has also been stopped. These kinds of things make customers reconsider whether they have to start using Stromasys Charon on the Cloud again or look for any other virtualization solution. Because of pricing, they may move out of it.
What other advice do I have?
Recently, Stromasys has gone through penetration testing and has been certified for it. Previously we had a hard time, but now Stromasys Charon on the Cloud has gone through a penetration test and they have documented it. We can show the document to the customer wherever they go for security reasons. That helps now. Before it was not there, but now I can see they have done some security vulnerability assessments for their own products. That is a good move that happened very recently.
Recently, I started to use Linux, but before it was primarily Windows.
I have no idea on that topic.
Maybe not with Tru64 and OpenVMS. Maybe on Charon-SSP, they wanted to look in. I have no idea, but some of my colleagues are talking about it.
There were a few bugs, but those were very old histories and have already been fixed. Now recently they have also started to upgrade all the virtualization NICs which are latest available in the market. If they want to really improve, they want to improve on their storage area. They have to attach the storage directly and that has to be converted. They have to work with the modernized storage to get it converted to HP-UX as well as for OpenVMS.
Storages can be too technical, but my statement is the following. Stromasys Charon on the Cloud has to work on the storage part. If I am going to have any storage at any level, that has to be communicated with the guest operating system, which is for example OpenVMS, without any issues. While configuring, I will make sure that only HPA card has been in the configuration. New storages should also be supported. They have to write an algorithm such that any IDs which come into the emulator have to be converted to VMS language or Tru64 language. That will rule out the major portion of the storage issue. The rest of the parts are pretty good.
I give this product a rating of 9.5 out of 10.