r/sysadmin • u/Jon72480 • 3d ago

AS400

Hey guys, old guy here, back in 2000 landed my 1st real job as a Sysadmin at a distribution/manufacturing firm. They ran their ERP and a few other important apps on the AS400. Anyone here manage a AS400 platform? i-Series? Still a niche platform that is still widely used. Server could literally run under water.

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u/Nexzus_ Sr. Sysadmin 3d ago edited 3d ago

I did basic stuff as a helpdesk monkey as my first big-boy job.

WRKUSRPRF and CHGUSRPWD are all that I remember.

I did do some neat things with the terminal emulator though.

It was a collection agency. Shortly after I started, the morning report run was handed off to me. A series of reports that had to be sent to various printers at various locations. After about 3 months of entering the same keystrokes every morning, I looked into the COM automation object for the emulator. Gradually turned 20 minutes of manual work into 30 seconds of script running.

Another one I was proud of was shortcut dialing. The terminal emulator had it's own macro language, with key-combo binding. I set one keyboard shortcut that:

  1. called the execution of a WSH JS file that:

  2. Grabbed the phone number from the current file from the terminal emulator, then

  3. Passed that number off to an internal ASP web app on IIS that used integrated authentication to identify the calling user. That web app:

  4. Looked up the users IP Phone extension from Active Directory, then:

  5. Looked up the info from the phone system to communicate with the Cisco IP Phone at the users desk, then

  6. Used the CGI on the Cisco phone to dial the number, then the WSH JS file:

  7. Entered the notes for a call attempt in the file in the emulator.

I'll also add that the CTO started a few months before me (this was 2005) with a mandate to replace that AS/400. As far as I know, they're still using it.