Where can I get the AS/400 Client Access Express for Windows software?

In the olden days before the IBM System i... in fact wind back a few years earlier until you get to the old IBM iSeries hardware... dont stop... keep going back into history until you get to the venerable IBM AS400 system... The software that was initially launched to allow PC's to connect to the AS400 was called CLIENT ACCESS. An installable image of Client Access (now called IBM i Access for Windows) can usually be found on the system in the IFS path "/QIBM/ProdData/Access/Windows/Install/Image" or "/QIBM/ProdData/CA400/Express/Install/Image".

So - just for my reference:

For operating system versions prior to version 6:

• /qibm/proddata/CA400/Express/Install/Image

For operating system version 6 and later (i6.1, i6.2. i7.1)

• 32-bit: /QIBM/ProdData/Access/Windows/Image32
• 64-bit AMD: /QIBM/ProdData/Access/Windows/Image64a
• 64-bit Itanium: /QIBM/ProdData/Access/Windows/Image64i

This weekend I upgraded an old Turnover 5.4 Change Management installation to the newer V100 version across several LPAR's of a customers IBMi intallation.

As part of the mission to tidy up the Software Change process – I see a lot of objects that are routinely created with various parameters being over-ridden because the defaults don’t fit my customers software development model. Now, the problem with this is that a standard is set and then followed, sometimes blindly, for years. Obviously, any step in a compilation where the programmer has to remember to over-ride the default creation parms is time consuming and error prone.

So, wonder why IBM havent changed the defaults for these commands since the good old AS/400 days:

Could we use CHGCMDDFT to set the following parameters as new defaults:

CRTSRCPF RCDLEN(132)

Increase from old RPG3 standard 92 rcdlen, thru RPGLE standard of 112 to new RPG4/Free standard of 132

CRTPF SIZE(1000000 10000 10) REUSEDLT(*YES)

This size is routinely overridden to *NOMAX (not a good idea) so setting a more realistic default size might be appropriate? 1m records?          

Set Source view in *DEBUG mode to *SOURCE allows developers to debug code and see the code it was compiled with:

CRTRPGMOD DBGVIEW(*SOURCE)

CRTCLMOD DBGVIEW(*SOURCE)

CRTBNDRPG DBGVIEW(*SOURCE)      

I'm currently working with IBMi (iSeries) Turnover change management system. It's the best SCM (Software Change Management) application in IBMi land and has a great balance between being easy to use and very powerful.

I know the product fairly well, but it still grins and kicks me in the shins occasionally. This week I've been seeing a lot of "this program has been changed outside of turnover" warning message when checking Turnover Forms to promote code changes. But, when I use DSPOBJD to compare object differences, the only thing different is the last used and the change date. Maybe its a system authority change on the object? Or something deeper and trickier...

The trouble is... what exactly is Turnover checking when it compares the old and new objects?

I've frequently scratched my head over this so it's time to submit the following question to SOFTLANDING SUPPORT

What exactly is the cause of "program has been changed outside of turnover" messages...

So, I was rummaging through one of my cavernous office desk drawers this morning. I was looking for an elusive desktop calculator (you know, one of those ones that starts the week on your desktop but at some time during any given night, jumps up, runs around the room and hides itself for no apparent reason) but found something far more interesting: An iSERIES.

Yep, one small enough to fit in my drawer.

Who knew that an iSeries could be used to “brush away dust and grit from a lens surface”

:)

Today, I was talking *tech* to a colleague in I.T. who still calls the IBMi Operating System - 'The AS/400'.  :/ We bumped over a few technology sleeping policemen during the conversation. Software is easy to upgrade. Mindsets are sometimes overlooked. It reminded me of the importance of keeping our skillsets current. If we dont move with the times, then our knowledge in our field of expertise quickly becomes out of date and hence 'of less worth'. I never want to be deprecated in favor of a new version of me. I want to make my own Nick Two Point Oh.

Searching for some examples of old AS400 secutiry holes that have since been plugged, I came across this document.

Hope it helps somebody out there:

Question: What commands are used to get auditing turned on? What commands are used to check audit logs?

Answer:  You must create the security auditing journal QAUDJRN if it doesn't already exist. If it does exist, then you can turn auditing on for specific profiles with the CHGAUD command, or for specific object using the CHGOBJAUD command. You'll need more detail than I've provided here, so refer to the manual Security - Basic V4Rx (SC41-5301) and/or the Tips and Tools for Securing your AS/400.

Question:  What is the command to list the applications and their security level?

Earlier, I was explaining how to use TURNOVER Change Management to some AS400 Developers who have spent years using Turnover but who had never used the Programmer Worklist Function. I was midly surprised at the manual technique that was being used to check out each object, adding to a form source member by source member and then asking another RPG Programmer to check the form layout for errors. Invariably the Forms would fail when promoted with a number of different reasons from library list errors to missing related objects (field references, copybooks, etc). 

So, I decided to start from the very basics and once this is implemented we can expand from there - this simple overview has an immediate cost saving for them. It's probably old rope to anyone that used Turnover to any degree but heres my beginners guide to using this very flexible AS400 Change Management Tool.

Important TURNOVER commands from the iSeries command line

• TURNOVER - main turnover menu (use command TO as shortcut)
• STRPWM - Start programmers work list
• TWRKTSK - Work with Tasks (ie: Projects)
• WRKTOLLO - Work with Turnover Library List is another useful one (you wont use this often but its handy to know)

Just remember that each Programmer work list should refer to a PROJECT

As 2011 New Years Eve came and went I spent a long time considering what my core personal resolutions should be: Eat Less, Exercise More, Speak Less, Think More.

Obviously I have my slightly more extravagant resolutions which are bound to fail: Take up Aikido, Become a Wine Connoisseur, Learn how to write Android & iPad Apps, Climb a Pyramid, Switch from Cigarettes to Cigars, Learn how to prepare a killer Chilli.

As I think about my new Years resolutions I also ponder what resolutions I should be applying to my professional role as an ‘AS400 Techie’. So here is resolution nbumber one:

Perform a system wide AS400/IBMi Security Cleanup

All of these tasks should be performed on a frequent basis but if your shop is a little more relaxed then maybe these pointers will assist in setting up an annual New Years Security Policy. Traditionally I always find the Christmas and New Years period is an ideal time for these kind of security cleanups - just after year end processing and the system has been fully backed up. Everyone is suffering from Hangovers and too many mince pies.

So lets get onto a list of things to do:

I’ve been playing with the IBMi Integrated File System over recent weeks. The IFS allows us to use and share data with Windows/Linux clients. It basically shares native IBMi (AS400) data with the windows world so that it looks just like a normal windows network drive.

You may read about AS/400 IFS and QDLS. It can be confusing for people. The QDLS folders were orig created for OfficeVision, a discontinued product, but can (and have been) used for other purposes. These folders are DOS-compatable and therefore use DOS style name (8.3 format). Directories (as sometimes called folders) not under QDLS are Unix compatable - long filenames and case-sensitive.

That sounds complicated but to make it very simple

All of us IBMi Developers use the System I Network as the holy grail of IBMi IT resources on the web. But not everybody knows you can get the monthly magazine for free……

System I News is the a free monthly magazine, in both physical and pdf format, that tells you what’s going on at IBM and specifically focussed on what happening with our ERP platform, new OS releases, service packs and security changes.

For example, this recent issue has covered the new OS IBMi v7 release (which finally lets us render webpages, XML, SOAP/REST and even PDFs direct from within RPG programs J), Security updates for IBMi V6. Web Enabling Legacy Apps like JBA, an interesting Open Source Document Management system that uses the Cloud for data storage and lots of other little nuggets of IT info…

System I News is free when you register at System I Network

Recently at a client site, I heard a monotonous and really quite annoying sound: tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,TAP... tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,TAP... tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,TAP... tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,TAP... coming from the adjoining Dilbert cubicle.

This prompted me to ask what he was doing. He reluctantly moaned that "I have to move all these spool files to another output queue and their are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them"

I looked quizzically until I realized he was in WRKSPLF on the green screen and was manually selecting each and every spool file with a 2 before paging down for the next screen, for as many screen as was needed, he then planned to change the output queue.

Wow!

Loads of time wasted doing a manual task when the tools to move the entire output queue are already right there in Windows but just didnt know about it.

So, to save my eardrums, I showed him how we could do it using IBM Navigator (iSeries Nav or i-Nav is its now known) in a few simple mouse clicks...

Wow! It's December already!

After a whirlwind year involving moving the whole family, two dogs and a pile of News 3x/400 magazines to this side of the pond I cant believe it's nearly 2010 already. Two thousand nine has seen us settling into our new life in the US, focussing mainly on IBMi and I feel that I've reached a kind of career milestone. After a couple of years focusing on other areas, in the IT wilderness, this year has seen my return to the IBM Midrange club and in the immortal words of Gary Glitter “I’m glad to be back”

The last twelve months have seen huge changes in my personal outlook on information technology and my role within it. I've learned more about programming techniques than I thought possible and its seriously changed how I approach my role as an IBMi Developer.

I've attended a couple of fantastic conferences (Rpg World and iSeries Devcon) that have re-ignited my passion and combined with meeting a bunch of terrific IT Peeps* has helped me to evolve and shrug off my Legacy AS400 RPG Analyst Programmer skin and emerge blinking as a Modern IBMi Developer.

Its IBM i running on IBM Power systems ( think Microsoft Windows Server running on Dell Poweredge Hardware ) but that's a bit of a mouthful so we simply say the IBMi.

After coming back from the last i-Developers convention I was feeling excited about all the fantastic things that this machine is capable of. The IBM Power System has incredibly bullet proof hardware and combined with the IBMi operating system it's just a totally integrated, incredibly resilient and easy to use Business Server for the new millennium. It's totally Internet friendly and everyone agrees IBMi is arguably the most secure server OS on the market today. It pumps out websites, emails, spreadsheet, full windows integration and even totally supports the old green screen applications from the 80/90s.

A fantastic bit of kit thats evolved incredibly from it's early B10 models 20 years ago.

But there is one problem with the IBMi - and its a big one!

I'm embarrassed to say that the problem is us IBMi Developers - or to be more accurate its the AS400 Developers. Many developers working on the modern machine and operating system are old school programmers who have evolved up from the early days of the AS400 (and it's earlier iterations the System/3x). It's the blinkered view of many IBMi developers who are in the 'I've always called it an AS400 so why change it now" mindset.

A depressingly vocal community out there still thinks of it as an old green-screen AS400, it's time we get up and say"no more" to the dusty old farts that insist on degrading the IBMi and trying to relegate it to the annals of history.

These are the same faceless people who own 60inch LCD TVs and use duct tape to make a small 18inch window and turn the colors down to black and white.

• You don't refer to your Windows7 Laptop as a DOS PC do you?
• So why take a modern Power System running IBM i  and then refer to it as an old fashioned AS/400

The IBMi brand needs a little loving...

Before anyone complains "Yes, OK, I called it an as400 in the blog title" but that is only because so many people still google using as400 because googling with system i just returns completely mad results. "Hell, even IBM who sell the darned System i called it a eServer iSeries Access" :confused:

Never seen so many grey haired developers in one hotel   ;)

On a serious note - Some terrific speakers and I was impressed by the general knowledge of all the presenters. I can honestly say I never got bored for one moment and good presentation style kept my attention for all 4 days. Joe Pluta in particular is an amusing guy with some strong opinions, and very funny to listen to.

It's nice to listen to i-people who are as obviously enthusiastic about the i as i am... see what I did there?

I've been predominantly working on IBMi for just over a year now (after a 4 year hiatus playing with other stuff - but thats a whole other story) and am amazed by the generally apathetic nature of many developers in the i-community: The ones that still call it an AS400 and write in RPG3... dont get me started...

After iSeries DevCon - my brain is awash with new RPG, PHP and ZEND-alicious ideas...

Track wise, I focused on RPG, PHP and Web-Server based stuff purely because it was a combination of the things the was interested in and also sharpening the blunter tools in my toolbox.

Notable speakers:
Jon Paris - great presenter who had an answer for every question I threw at him. He really kicked PHP into focus for me... So much so, This weekend I scrapped a website and am currently re-tooling with PHP...

OK, so just what the heck DO we call the AS400 nowadays?

On a few blogs and forums this topic is frequently raising its head. It seems to be a bone of contention with virtually every IBM 'thingie' System developer out there.

Personally, I'm having a tough job getting away from calling it 'The 400'. The Application System/400 was born hot on the tails of the System/38. Bit of a boring name for such a great computer server, but Hey - it was easily shortened to the AS400 and the name made sense!

Then came various incarnations of eServers, followed by the nSeries denominations. I've tried calling it the iSeries for a long time now but it... just... doesnt... work for me. Here I am, struggling to stop myself saying mentioning that dreaded word that is 1 higher than 399, getting used to saying The iSeries (or occasionally, on rare flamboyant moments, the System i) and I've just been corrected by some young IBM i whippersnapper.

/me sighs and admits defeat

another golden oldie from the bucket full of dusty emails sitting in the corner... hopefully useful to somebody:

I've just stumbled across an open source RPG Source Editor thats built around a PC Editor called Eclipse - I've only ever used Eclipse for my very infrequent Java work. Having recently decided to upgrade all the Projex400 utilities to RPG/FREE and make them available on this website I'm very excited about this great bit of software.

More details are at RPG NEXT GEN which looks very promising.

This site offers some resources for working with the programming language RPG (native on IBM System i). IMHO IBM has done a poor job so far providing the RPG programming community with any decent software development kit for RPG compared to the Java Development Kit offered by Sun to the java community. Some people might now argue that IBM has done a great job by providing WDSCi and EGL. But perhaps this is comparing apples with pears. Anyway ... where is the solution?

One thing is clear ... there is no current adhoc solution to it. I'm trying to make life a little bit easier for the RPG developers and offer some resources.

It's still in Alpha stages of development but i think this could become a serious rival to the excellent (but expensive) IBMoffering - WDSC.