April 30 marked the end of IBM's support for one piece of IBM i software we have all used, Client Access. Its replacement is Access Client Solutions, ACS. It does everything that Client Access did, including 5250 emulation.
Why have I mentioned this?
I often get asked which 5250 emulator people should to attach to free IBM i partitions like RZKH's free IBM i partition PUB400.COM. The problem has been that the best emulators were not free.
ACS can be downloaded for free. And once installed its 5250 emulator can easily be activated to connect to servers like PUB400. Now you can have a quality 5250 emulator that does so much more than those others you have used in the past.
I am not going to give instructions as to how to download and install ACS, as this depends on which operating system your PC using.
I recommend you read the Quick Start Guide or Getting Started Guide before going any further. Both of these documents are on a FTP server. If you use Chrome and you click on these links the documents will be downloaded to your PC. If you use Firefox the documents will open in a browser window.
I have a few warnings before you do install ACS:
- You must have Java 8.0 or greater. Instructions on how to discover which version of Java you have is in the documentation. If you don't have the right 8.0 or greater go to java.com and download the latest version for your PC's operating system.
- I believe ACS only works with IBM i 7.2 and 7.3. If you use PUB400 then you will be fine as that is at 7.3. But if you connect to other servers you need to check their release level and whether it is compatible with ACS.
- ACS will overlay your Client Access 5250 emulation sessions. After installing ACS if you click on any Client Access sessions you have ACS terminal emulation will open.
I was advised to download and extract the contents of the zipped files into a new folder. That way when the installation had been completed the folder can be deleted.
When you are ready click on this link. Then click on the "Download IBM i Access Client Solutions base package" link.
You will be asked to login with your IBMid. Don't worry if you don't have one you can create one from a link on that page.
Now follow the instructions in the Quick Start Guide or Getting Started Guide to download and perform the installation on your PC.
After the installation process has finished you can configure a 5250 emulation session to attach to PUB400. Before you do check the instructions on how to configure your emulator for PUB400, see here.
Good luck with your installation.
Been using the emulator since ACS was introduced. Simply terrific. If configured correctly, there's little else you'll need to navigate from an operations / admin point of view and your users will love you for it.
ReplyDeleteBe advised, ACS works with 7.1
ReplyDeleteWith IBMi V5R4, 5250 OK, Data transfert OK,IFS OK, Wrk Splf OK, SQL script OK,
ReplyDeleteConsole and system managment KO, SQL performance tool not tested
The customization of the keyboard has regressed. The old interface was more intuitive
IBM ACS also works well with OpenJ9 JVM v. 11 and later (https://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10792205).
ReplyDeleteOn the server IBM ACS requires IBM V5R4 and later. Navigator for i, 5250 console and virtual control panel requires IBM 6.1 and later on the server. SQL Performance Center requires IBM 7.1 and later.
ACS uses the same host services used by IBM i Access.
ACS requires the same license as the IBM i Access Family product (XW1) to use 5250 emulation and data transfer.