Configuring IBM i Access Client Solutions

IBM i Access Client Solutions replaced the old Client Access, and it has one substantial difference: it is written in Java, so the same package runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. People moving to it after years of Client Access tend to use it as an emulator and nothing more, ignoring half the tools it contains.

Getting started and first setup

ACS is downloaded from the IBM site with a valid ID. It has no traditional installer: you unpack it and launch the executable for your platform. On Windows that is acslaunch_win-64.exe.

The first thing to do is define the system: System Configurations → New, giving the host name or IP address. From then on every tool uses that definition.

Two things are worth setting straight away:

• A descriptive system name. When you manage four of them, PROD, TEST, DEV are far more useful than IP addresses.
• A different background colour for production. It is in the 5250 session settings, and it is the most effective remedy there is against the right command run on the wrong machine.

The 5250 session

Once configured, the session should be saved to a .ws file. That file can be copied, put on a shared folder and handed to colleagues: everybody starts from the same configuration.

Two settings worth revisiting immediately:

Keyboard mapping. The defaults do not match what someone arriving from Client Access expects, particularly for Enter and Reset. You fix it under Edit → Preferences → Keyboard, and that configuration can also be exported and distributed.

Screen size. The 27x132 model shows much more content than 24x80 on commands like WRKACTJOB. Not every application program handles it correctly, but for system work it is convenient.

Run SQL Scripts: the tool that changes the job

This is the most underrated entry in the menu. It opens a proper SQL editor, with syntax highlighting, results in a grid and — above all — Visual Explain, which draws the access plan of a query and shows where the database is losing time. You invoke it with Ctrl+Shift+E instead of running the statement.

From here you also reach IBM i Services, the SQL views and functions that expose the state of the system. They are the biggest surprise for anyone who only knows the 5250:

-- The equivalent of WRKACTJOB, in SQL
SELECT JOB_NAME, SUBSYSTEM, AUTHORIZATION_NAME,
       CPU_TIME, ELAPSED_CPU_PERCENTAGE
  FROM TABLE(QSYS2.ACTIVE_JOB_INFO())
 ORDER BY CPU_TIME DESC
 FETCH FIRST 20 ROWS ONLY;

The advantage is not cosmetic: an SQL result can be filtered, sorted, exported and read by a program. A 5250 screen cannot.

Data Transfer, instead of exporting by hand

This moves data between IBM i and the PC. Downloading produces Excel, CSV or text files from a query; uploading loads a PC file into a table.

The useful part is that the settings are saved into a transfer file, which can then be invoked from the command line. A recurring extraction becomes a scheduled script instead of ten minutes of manual work every Monday morning.

The other entries worth opening at least once

• Printer Output — spooled files seen from the PC, with the ability to open them and save them as PDF without going through WRKSPLF.
• Integrated File System — the IFS browsed like a folder, for uploading and downloading files.
• 5250 Console and Hardware Management Interface — the system console, needed in the cases where the machine cannot be reached normally. Worth knowing about before you need it.
• Schema (in the Database section) — the schema browser: tables, indexes, views, constraints and procedures, with the properties of each.

Java: the one thing that causes trouble

ACS requires a sufficiently recent version of Java. It is the most frequent cause of "it does not open any more": an update changed the system's default version, and ACS either fails to start or starts with strange errors.

The minimum requirement moves with ACS versions, so check it in the IBM documentation for your version. If ACS stops working after a PC update, the first thing to check is Java, not ACS.

A note for administrators

ACS is updated often, and recent versions regularly add new IBM i Services and new tools. It is worth keeping the package on a shared network folder, updating it there and pointing everyone at it: that avoids ending up with six different versions across the company and behaviour that changes from desk to desk.

Which versions this works on

ACS does not depend on the IBM i release the way Client Access did: it is a program that runs on the PC and talks to the system. It works with all supported releases, and it is worth keeping it up to date even if the system is on an older release.

The requirement that matters is Java on the PC. IBM states that ACS runs on operating systems supporting Java 8 or higher, and recommends using the current update of an LTS version. The minimum rises over time, so check it on the IBM page for your ACS version: it is the most frequent cause of "it stopped opening" after a PC update.

What came before. ACS replaced IBM i Access for Windows (the old Client Access), which was Windows-only and required a real installation. Nearly all the functions carry over:

System i Navigator (the graphical system management side) was not replaced by ACS but by IBM Navigator for i, a web interface served by the system itself. They are two different things and easy to confuse.

Sources

• Getting started with IBM i Access Client Solutions — IBM Documentation 7.4
• Obtaining IBM i Access Client Solutions — IBM Support
• IBM i Access — Client Solutions — IBM Support
• Java Options for IBM i Access Client Solutions — IBM Support