Hi all,
I'm a software developer in Australia working for a manufacturing company running an IBM i based ERP from way back when. We have an AS400 developer but he is probably looking to retire in a couple of years, and I'd like to be able to help and understand this system better anyway. (As a computer science guy it's very nice being exposed to this very unfamiliar system)
Most business users don't see the system; we send data and commands to it to work with purchase orders/sales orders/production orders/etc, and we use an ODBC connection to pull data from it which is presented via a bespoke Access 2010 system we inherited that sources its data from SQL Server and our POWER7 machine. I'm getting more familiar with it; I can work with files, logicals, queries, accounts, save/restore libraries, can troubleshoot the RPG/400 and CL code the system is written in, etc.
I'm trying to take it to the next level and be confident maintaining the system as a whole, but this being the company's core ERP you can't really play around with it. I've got an IBM 720 off eBay, which works well because our system at work is also a POWER7 system. I've decoupled it from the HMC and just managed to do a fresh standalone IBM i install from the CDs, which is good as it matches the setup at work.
So I'm posting first to say hi, but also I'm looking for thoughts on people perhaps in similar situations: We have a 7.2 installation at work, and at home I've got 7.3 because I can't seem to downgrade the LIC it previously had on it. I've read some horror stories about people who got behind with their OS version and PTFs, and I feel like we're doing just that with our system at work; how worried would you guys be working on a 7.2 install? Is 7.2 to 7.3 a big upgrade?
Regarding my home system I've got 70 days grace period. This isn't too bad as I can reinstall without too much fuss as needed, but I'm guessing most people here don't have licensed kit at home? Are there developer editions of IBM i software or any official way to learn the system at home? What do others do here? These days when the barrier to learning most systems is made very low it seems IBM really require you to be trained within a company, or have I missed something?
Also although I like the 5250 console, and use *nix consoles often, for development and debugging I want to be able to use IBM Rational Developer i. It has some handy debugging utils, but these are mainly for ILE type binaries and we're using the pre-ILE binaries. I know there is a conversion tool that converts RPG/400 to RPG IV which can be compiled as an ILE; has anyone here got experience with this, and it is remotely feasible we could convert and recompile our ERP system in ILE binary format? It looks like as long as you convert the code and all the "/copy"d code it should be functionally identical, but with a massive codebase is an automatic conversion of the whole ERP realistic?
Finally since I'm more familiar with *nix I thought it would be good to use a Linux OS on the 720 hardware to be better able to compare to PC style computers ("IBM compatible PCs" I guess), since I still don't totally understand FSPs/LPARs/where the disk config is stored/where the LIC is installed to/what the vital product thing is about/etc. But it looks like only some ancient Red Hat Enterprise installs are supposed to work. Does anyone here use *nix (not AIX, I doubt I can get that) on a POWER7 and have any advice?
Any info/thoughts appreciated. Cheers,
KJK
I'm a software developer in Australia working for a manufacturing company running an IBM i based ERP from way back when. We have an AS400 developer but he is probably looking to retire in a couple of years, and I'd like to be able to help and understand this system better anyway. (As a computer science guy it's very nice being exposed to this very unfamiliar system)
Most business users don't see the system; we send data and commands to it to work with purchase orders/sales orders/production orders/etc, and we use an ODBC connection to pull data from it which is presented via a bespoke Access 2010 system we inherited that sources its data from SQL Server and our POWER7 machine. I'm getting more familiar with it; I can work with files, logicals, queries, accounts, save/restore libraries, can troubleshoot the RPG/400 and CL code the system is written in, etc.
I'm trying to take it to the next level and be confident maintaining the system as a whole, but this being the company's core ERP you can't really play around with it. I've got an IBM 720 off eBay, which works well because our system at work is also a POWER7 system. I've decoupled it from the HMC and just managed to do a fresh standalone IBM i install from the CDs, which is good as it matches the setup at work.
So I'm posting first to say hi, but also I'm looking for thoughts on people perhaps in similar situations: We have a 7.2 installation at work, and at home I've got 7.3 because I can't seem to downgrade the LIC it previously had on it. I've read some horror stories about people who got behind with their OS version and PTFs, and I feel like we're doing just that with our system at work; how worried would you guys be working on a 7.2 install? Is 7.2 to 7.3 a big upgrade?
Regarding my home system I've got 70 days grace period. This isn't too bad as I can reinstall without too much fuss as needed, but I'm guessing most people here don't have licensed kit at home? Are there developer editions of IBM i software or any official way to learn the system at home? What do others do here? These days when the barrier to learning most systems is made very low it seems IBM really require you to be trained within a company, or have I missed something?
Also although I like the 5250 console, and use *nix consoles often, for development and debugging I want to be able to use IBM Rational Developer i. It has some handy debugging utils, but these are mainly for ILE type binaries and we're using the pre-ILE binaries. I know there is a conversion tool that converts RPG/400 to RPG IV which can be compiled as an ILE; has anyone here got experience with this, and it is remotely feasible we could convert and recompile our ERP system in ILE binary format? It looks like as long as you convert the code and all the "/copy"d code it should be functionally identical, but with a massive codebase is an automatic conversion of the whole ERP realistic?
Finally since I'm more familiar with *nix I thought it would be good to use a Linux OS on the 720 hardware to be better able to compare to PC style computers ("IBM compatible PCs" I guess), since I still don't totally understand FSPs/LPARs/where the disk config is stored/where the LIC is installed to/what the vital product thing is about/etc. But it looks like only some ancient Red Hat Enterprise installs are supposed to work. Does anyone here use *nix (not AIX, I doubt I can get that) on a POWER7 and have any advice?
Any info/thoughts appreciated. Cheers,
KJK
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