On 9 April 2010 17:49, Ward, Mike S <[email protected]> wrote: > We just acquired an institution that has an AS/400 running some > applications. I think they can connect to us using EE, but I'm not sure > if by doing that we can access those applications from the zbox or if we > can access the data on the AS/400. In other words, I'm not familiar > enough with the AS/400 to talk intelligently about host connectivity. > So, any information about how or why would be welcome.
There are several approaches: The AS/400 has an ftp server and client, so if you just need to transfer data, that's an easy start. But keep in mind that all (well, most) AS/400 files are database-like structured things, and someone has to interpret the data. The good news is that it's EBCDIC. (Well, again, it's *mostly* EBCDIC. The IFS (UNIX-style) files are in Unicode.) You can similarly set up IP printing, so that an AS/400 app can have a print key that sends to an IP printer on your network, or to InfoPrint Server on your z/OS. Probably to RSCS too, for that matter. The AS/400 native (coax-attached) terminal is the 5250, and there is TN5250 over TCP/IP just like the TN3270 we all use on z/OS. You can easily enough find PC-based emulators for this protocol (PCOMM among others), so using that you can log on to an AS/400 green screen and run the app as it was intended. Some AS/400s (or perhaps some AS/400 apps) support TN3270, but I don't know enough to say whether that support is at some OS layer or has to be specific to the app. Certainly you can logon using TN3270, but the PF keys and such are "weird". The above should get you connected at a basic level. Going further, with a TCP/IP stack, you can write or modify programs to talk directly to each other as on any platform. There is also SNA support, but whether you want to start doing new stuff with SNA in 2010 is another matter. If you have IP connectivity to the new box already, get yourself a TN5250, and try to connect to port 23. TN5250 is a lot like TN3270 in that it's a telnet extension, options are negotiated in ASCII, and then it runs in EBCDIC. And get used to learning a whole new green-screen way of doing things! It *looks* like a 3270 until you actually try to do anything. :-( Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
