Prerequisites

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Enhanced Connector Enhanced connectors add extended capabilities and require a separate entitlement in addition to your Alation platform license.

Network Configuration

Open outbound TCP ports to the IBM i system. For IBM i systems, the JDBC driver typically auto-detects the port, which is usually 8471 or 446. If your system uses a non-standard port, open the appropriate outbound TCP ports (for ACS customers) from the Alation Agent server or (for Alation on-prem customers) from the Alation server itself.

Database User Account

Create a user account on the IBM i system that will be used by Alation to connect to the database. This user account should have the required permissions to access the database and perform metadata extraction (MDE), profiling, and query log ingestion (QLI).

Database Access Requirements:

The user account must have appropriate authority on the IBM i system to access the database objects. Ensure the user has the necessary permissions through IBM i security settings and user profiles.

Permissions for Metadata Extraction:

The user account requires read access to system catalog tables in the QSYS2 schema:

  • Access to QSYS2.SYSSCHEMAS (schema information)

  • Access to QSYS2.SYSTABLES (table information)

  • Access to QSYS2.SYSCOLUMNS (column information)

Permissions for Sampling and Profiling:

  • For profiling, the user account requires read (SELECT) permission on tables that you want to sample.

Permissions for Query Log Ingestion:

  • See QLI Configuration on DB2i below

JDBC URI:

  • Format jdbc:as400://<hostname_or_ip>:<port>/<service_name>

  • Example jdbc:as400:/my_ibm.net:8471/TESTDB

Note

The port is optional—the JDBC driver can auto-detect it. For IBM i, it typically resolves to 8471 or 446.

ACS Customers

If you are an Alation Cloud Service customer, ensure you have Alation Agent installed and running. The Agent is mandatory for this connector in ACS deployments.

On-premise / Self-managed Alation Customers

Check Alation Connector Manager (ACM) is installed and running. ACM is mandatory for OCF connectors.