Opening a blog with a rant is never nice but “Why do I have to put AS400 in the blog title“! Aaarrrgh — This still annoys but so many people still google using as400 because googling with iseries, system i, or IBM i — its hard to choose what audience this information might be useful for. “Hell, even IBM who sell the darned System i called it a eServer iSeries Access” :confused:

Anyway, I wanted to upgrade my laptop version of IBM ISERIES ACCESS FOR WINDOWS from 5.3 to 5.4 but couldnt lay my hands on the installation CD’s. “What can I do?” I mused. Suddenly, in a puff of logic, preceded by the grinding sounds of ancient dusty mental cogs retrieving little used datum, I remembered that iSeries Access can be installed from directly from the System-i by way of the Integrated File Server. See I used the correct name that time – and before you laugh saying “hahah – its a power server running IBMi” – I’m using a IBM System i Model 550. So there. Shut it!

So, find the installation folder and normally we would create a share on that directory using WRKLNK.We can then use iNavigator to create a share. Then any PC can map a drive to that share. But wait! The System i has a default share for /QIBM. Huzzah!

Installation or upgrading couldnt be easier….

Just be sure to turn on the host server for NetServer (STRTCPSVR SERVER(*NETSVR) then just go to

\\your-machines-ip-address\qibm\proddata\Access\Windows\Install\Image\Setup.exe

UPDATED JULY 2011 – more recent versions of IBM i now have a choice of two subfolder Image32 and Image64. You need to snag the version that matches your 32bit or 64bit operating system.

and bosh!

Job done!

CAVEAT EMPTOR: On my system the IFS access is fairly slow so I would recommend copying the entire folder (including subfolders obviously) down to your PC before installing it using your local copy.