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AS/400e info

C

cbc

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
39
Location
Rohnert Park, CA
Hello,

Although I'm a new member, I've been searching this and other places high & low for some information on an AS/400 I have acquired.

It's a AS/400e, 2406-170 model in the larger case which contains additional drives, and what looks like 2 additional Twinax cards in it.

I have in my possession as well the IBM cable 97H7557 which looks to be the correct cable to connect to a Twinax output on the rear and plug into a Windows machine with the client access software installed. Of course, I'm missing the client access software (well if it's on the machine, I can't get to it either yet).

What I gather in my searching is that I probably either need the Windows Client access software, as the Linux version only wants to connect via TCP/IP,, or an actual terminal to connect to this machine. I didn't happen to see a download link from IBM for the Windows software, but the Linux version is easy to obtain.

As it sits, when I turn the machine on, it seems to initialize all the drives, and settles on a code (which I wrote down, but misplaced that notebook!), and the attention light remains lit. It does not seem to complete an IPL, and I'm guessing it's waiting for input from the main Operations Console.

So if I need a real terminal, do I need a 5250 terminal (with associated cabling) to connect to this machine? Or will an "emulator" such as this work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Visara-NCT-...871455?pt=US_Thin_Clients&hash=item35c192841f

I've been going over the manuals available from IBM, but I haven't found the doc that says "this is how to turn your AS/400 on and what to connect to it to make it work" doc yet :cool: Most of what I've found describes the hardware and add-on cards, although I am still going over the installation planning doc to see if there is anything in there.

Thanks for any assistance!
Clay Carley
 
I believe that you need a twinax connection, so either a real IBM 5250 compatible terminal

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-3472-Tw...tage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item1c2922274a

or a 5250 card and emulation software. This looks like it might fit the bill:-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOSaNOVA-PL...824?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19cbb920e0

Whilst the thin client you posted a link for has an option for a twinax card it, it doesn't have one fitted. Not sure how rare these are, but I would venture that the famous "round tuits" are more common...l
 
Hi Dave,

Thanks for the info! Sure does seem a tad more cost effective to grab the whole terminal rather than the card... Or you at least get more for your money.

I had a feeling that terminal I posted would be iffy at best...

Thanks,
Clay
 
Its not at all "iffy"Its just it doesn't do what you want !, In fact I have a couple of similar devices sat on the table to the left of my display. They are very usefull for getting a "semi vintage" feel if you can't find or scrounge a real 3174 Mainframe Controller and co-ax attached screen, like the one to my right. They both end up connecting to the Hercules Mainframe emulator over TCP/IP, but I think a Raspberry PI might be a a cheaper way to do it....

Note that non of this is any use on an AS/400 until you have TCP/IP up and running, and even then the AS/400 really wants to talk TN5250 and my stuff talks tn3270. What a strange world mainframes are...
 
As400

As400

Dave:

If you have an older computer with an 8bit ISA Slot then an emulation card is pretty inexpensive
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM...144?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337b5624a8

You will need an emulation package such as IBM Dos Terminal Emulator or IBM Personal Communications. The Twinax adapter needs to be address "0" for the System Operator Display if I remember correctly. Also the card will need as adapter cable that will terminate the connection. It will connect to the D Pin Adapter on the card. If you acquire a card without an adapter, I believe I have a couple of extra ones still around.

As far as the System Attention Light on the system booting up, you could be right it may be stopping when it is attempting to find the System Opertors Console. The error codes on the front display will help if you decode the error.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Jimmy
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the assistance thus far.

Found my notes, and the last code on startup that is displayed is:
675a3200

There are other C-codes that fly by of course, but when the machine has stopped doing things, that's the code that remains.

I did some google searching, and will be doing more. From what I found, it may be a failed drive.

As for the terminal emulator card, that looks like a good idea, if I happen to still have a machine with an ISA slot... which I may... I seem to recall a shared ISA/PCI slot on some of these boards from a few years ago.

Wow, failed drive, the possibility of no O/S, possibly need a terminal, still have to figure out how to reset the QSECOFR password... quite a project I've gotten myself into. Makes the Digital Alpha stuff look easy! Then again, I guess it was...

Thanks again,
Clay
 
Clay:

A lof of users fail to reset the default password for QSRV. You might want to try to get to Dedicated Service Tools in restricted mode when you get the drive problem solved. If you will look up the model number on the drive, I may have have one here. We have upgraded the drives on most of our boxes over the years and I have hung on to the old drives.
 
Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for the reply. When I picked up the machine, there was a "spare" drive included... which may or may not work. The owner of the machine, however, had no idea how to operate it or what to connect it to. Looked like it might have been a night stand for a few years :(

I'm hoping that when I get console connected and functional, that even with the error code on the front panel, I'll see some sort of informative output. I certainly don't want to go moving disks around if there's any possibility of getting what it has on it working.

I did receive some books yesterday, "Introduction to As/400 System Operations" and "Control Language Programming for the As/400". I'm still confidant that I will get this machine running and online. Just don't know how much time it will take with my work schedule...

Thanks for all the help,
Clay
 
If you were closer I would recommend heading down to Sunnyvale and seeing if Weirdstuff has any Twinax terminals for sale or if any of the recyclers down there had anything. If you were closer up north I know for certain that the RE-PC in Renton has a whole shelf of InfoWindow II systems for sale. I'm thinking of going back down there some time to get one myself.
 
NeXT,

Well you know, with the nature of my work, I do end up in the South Bay from time to time. I'll have to check that place out; I found their website and it looks like a cool shop.

Man if I were only closer to Washington!

Clay
 
Hi Clay,

When you get a console connected you should be able to perform a manual IPL and then use the Dedicated Service Tools (DST) option to recover your QSECOFR password. I haven't had to do this for quite some time, but I've got the following amongst my bookmarks which might help - Admin Alert: Resurrecting the QSECOFR Profile in OS/400

Also, should you decide to use a proper twinax terminal as the console, make sure you configure it as session id 0 (you can have 0 to 7) and connect it to port 0 of the twinax block. If however you are using a PC as the console, just connect the PC to your 170 using the 97H7557 cable you mentioned, then configure a Client Access/400 session to use the PC Comm port. I've got an old Win98 laptop setup as a Client Access console somewhere - I'll dig it out over the weekend and report back how the CA400 is configured.

Take a look at the following IBM link on Changing known passwords. It lists some default profiles/passwords and default DST profiles/passwords.

Steve
 
NeXT said:
If you were closer I would recommend heading down to Sunnyvale and seeing if Weirdstuff has any Twinax terminals for sale or if any of the recyclers down there had anything. If you were closer up north I know for certain that the RE-PC in Renton has a whole shelf of InfoWindow II systems for sale. I'm thinking of going back down there some time to get one myself.
Click to expand...

I was at RE-PC yesterday and saw those IBM terminals. I didn't look too close as they didn't seem like anything I could use. I don't know what price they were asking and don't remember seeing any keyboards for them.
 
Hi Steve,

I have spent some time looking at those links :) I may still be "doing it wrong" but I haven't been able to get a serial connection from the windows box to work yet. It looks the software wants a username & password before making the connection. I tried several of the different default username/password combos and still haven't seen anything. I think I need to look through some more IBM docs to see what the different IPL options really mean as well.

While browsing Ebay I did come across an external tape drive; cheap.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-7208-34...Tape_Data_Cartidge_Drives&hash=item3f1f64b489
For the price, I'm certainly considering picking that up!

Although yesterday was "Black Friday", I did have a chance to check out our local used hardware supply shop; HSC electronics, in Rohnert Park. http://www.halted.com/ Although they had a nice selection of 19" racks, rectifiers, giant projectors, Cisco switches, Sun servers, and other random cool stuff, there were no IBM terminals. I did see an IBM x-Series e-Server; looked clean on the outside, no price though. Not what I was looking for anyway.

When I get my webserver back up, I'll make sure to get some images up of this "mini". I think the webserver got jealous; the hard drive crashed hard shortly after the AS/400 arrived. Good thing I've got backups!

Clay
 
Since the machine may be complaining of disk issues with the code that it displays, I decided that a re-seat of the drives probably wouldn't hurt.

I went through the drives in 1/2 of the machine yesterday, but upon inspection, I'm not sure that there is anything on this machine at all. All of the drives have "Done" written in sharpie on them with a checkmark... which says to me that they may have been "cleaned". I guess this just adds to the challenge.

I did purchase the tape drive I listed above. I'm sure that's just going to add to the whole experience! I'm still looking at terminals; however I'm going to the Los Angeles area next week for work and am hoping to perhaps find some computer recycle places while I'm there.

Clay
 
cbc said:
...I haven't been able to get a serial connection from the windows box to work yet. It looks the software wants a username & password before making the connection...
Click to expand...

Hi Clay,

I've dug out my old win2k laptop that has CA/400 set-up as a console for my AS/400 model 150. It's running CA/400 V3R2 and the configuration settings are:

Communication_Configure....jpg

And here's the configuration file for this:
View attachment DSP01.ws.txt

You will need to rename the configuration file to be DSP01.ws - the forum refused to uploaded it without the .txt extension.

Hope that helps.
Steve
 
Hi Steve,

That helps a lot actually! I'll have to take a look at the windows box again, I don't remember seeing that async console checkbox.

Thanks for the config file as well. I'll give this another go & make sure to keep you all updated.

Clay
 
Hi John,
I was able to sign up for midrange-l the other day, and wow, you are right! That certainly is a very active list.

I'm still mulling over my terminal options, and working with it when I have time.

Thanks!
Clay
 
Clay:
FWIW, I use an IBM Infowindow 3476 twinax terminal for the console on our 9406-270.
Never could get the darned serial cable to pc to work. Not needful, though.

PM sent.
 
Hey all,

Happy Holidays, etc. For the past month I've been shipped off to So-Cal for work, so I haven't had much time for anything. Most of the time my days were 4:00am to 8:00pm...

In any case, thankfully I get paid by the hour and accrued a bit of doubletime pay, as well as getting a nice bonus this year. So I've spent the past few days browsing ebay & IBM docs for info. I wasn't able to get the PC 5250 emulation to work on a Windows laptop, and my other machines run Linux. The Windows box didn't list any serial ports when I got the software running, even after checking the async box. Of course, I was also trying to use a USB-Serial adapter, which who knows if it was working properly. Works 100% on my Thinkpad X40 running CentOS...

So I have a green screen terminal on order; a 3476-BG3 model. Also, the 4-port twinax brick, a SCSI cable for the tape drive as well as 1 tape. Figured I'd start with 1 to confirm operation, and go from there. I did confirm that this box has the external tape controller card installed. I am excited to get the terminal plugged in to see what this box is complaining about... I'm still thinking positive, and hopefully it's complaining of a disk error because of the dead battery... the error comes up after it looks at the CD drive. I have a feeling though, that's not going to be the case.

I searched this site as well and found some good info in some old posts as well. I guess we'll see how this goes in a week or two!

Clay
 
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