R: AS/400 720 first steps

Hello, you were quite lucky... wish I could find some auction of that kind ( at least for the fun of attending ). First the bad news ... from v4rsomething, you need licenses (while before it was avoidable) unless you have one of two specific 9406 sold for development ( I think the 720 is not one of them but I can very easily be wrong. Anyway requires v4r3 upward.. not sure what's the max allowed.. if v5 or v6 ). If you got documents with the as400 with the licenses for the os and some products ... good, you are lucky. If you got no documents, I think you need to inquire with ibm using the serial number.. they can provide the keys for all the products linked to that machine ( if they want, that is ). 2nd bad news, the hd are scsi, but with a proprietary firmware and low level format.. you need discs specifically for an as400. I think there's some way to use a serial console, but twinax would be preferred ( if that model has Ethernet, you could also use that, but only after having the os installed, I think ). You don't necessarily need a real terminal.. there are cards ( isa / pci ) both from ibm and others ( I would suggest ibm, because the support offered is better ). IBM personal communicator or etc can then be used ( free ) If you find a real terminal, I think you should set it on id0, to get a console output The operating system... some newer versions maybe from a certain Russian site. Or someone would have to borrow you a media (at least is a cd.. if still an older model tape based, it would have been annoying) Now the panel with the service processor. A lot of things are done from there Boot , kind of boot ( manual , automatic ipl ... from boot area A, that should be with patches applied, and from boot area B, that should be without the latest patches applied , from tape / cd ... boot to apply patches ) and you can also gracefully shutdown using the panel. You move using the arrows and select.. when all ready the big white button starts the ipl. All the long numbers etc are diagnostics... if it blocks It allows to see where / why. -----Messaggio originale----- Da: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] Per conto di Camiel Vanderhoeven Inviato: luned? 15 luglio 2013 15:34 A: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Oggetto: AS/400 720 first steps Hi Everyone, I had a blast at a bankruptcy auction today. I was after some networking gear, which went for more than I was willing to spend on it, but ended up with an IBM AS/400e 9406-720 for 10 euros (no other bidders). I managed to get it home (don't ask me how ;-) I'm not sure if it qualifies as a classic, but if it does, I could use some help from this list... The system was running until recently. They then pulled out all the hard drives and destroyed them, so no left over OS on the machine. The system came with two breakout cables which end in 12 twinax connectors (1 x 4 + 1 x 8), and an external V.34 modem with cable (so I do have a cable to get from the odd IBM connector to regular RS-232). The system did not come with any terminals, so no console. It would appear that the console was put on a pallet with a bunch of computer monitors and auctioned off as a big lot of monitors. The system powers on, and there's a bit of activity on the display. So, questions: 1) How to connect a console. Would a serial console with a null-modem cable do any good at all? Or would I need to get a twinax console terminal? Any good pointers to find one in western Europe? Preferrably cheap; I don't know if I can get the machine going) 2) Will ordinary SCSI hard disks work in this system, or do they need to be specific IBM types? There's 20 disk slots, and 20 disk brackets that appear to take standard 68-pin SCSI disks. 3) Once 1 and 2 are solved, how to get an operating system on there? If there's a good "AS/400 from scratch" site or text around, please let me know... Cheers, Camiel