# Legacy database support (iSeries / as/400) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 15, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926 "2007-03-15T17:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shawn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926/1 "2007-03-15T17:46:57Z")
I would really like to incorporate Ruby in my organization, but I have been mostly limited to Java (for the past 10 years or so) due to the availability of mature JDBC drivers (particularly for as/400 aka i5 aka iSeries). While Java works fine, a full J2EE implementation if often overkill for many smaller applications. My current web development framework of choice is Tapestry along with Spring and Hibernate. I’ve played with Ruby and RoR for a while now, but as far as I know there is no real support yet for DB2/400. I don’t want to run Ruby on the iSeries, but I do need database support. Does RoR need to be explicitly support DB2/400, or is it possible to use a generic ODBC connection? I have read for the past year or so that iSeries support is on the way, but I haven’t seen any real progress yet. I would appreciate any information or suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shawn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926/2 "2007-03-15T22:55:46Z")
Shawn, As you are no doubt aware, there are two ways to talk to DB2/400 from client/server applications : via a proprietary driver (iSeries Access) and using the standard DB2 client via DB2 Connect. If you have DB2 Connect, then you should be able to use the ibm\_db2 client from IBM Alphaworks. Phil ---
**Author:** ![shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shawn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926/3 "2007-03-16T16:55:50Z")
Philip, Yes, I’m aware of those, but comments such as this: [Peak Obsession](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/IBM+DB2) and this: [http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/dw\_thread.jsp?message=13920311&cat=28&thread=151993&treeDisplayType=threadmode1&forum=913#13920311](http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/dw_thread.jsp?message=13920311&cat=28&thread=151993&treeDisplayType=threadmode1&forum=913#13920311) tell me that IBM is working to unify DB2 Connect support across all of the db2 products. It appears full support is coming in the future, but I was curious to know if anyone in the rails community is having success with this at the moment. Thanks, Shawn ---
**Author:** ![shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shawn)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926/4 "2014-11-06T09:55:49Z")
It is helpful. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shawn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shawn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/legacy-database-support-iseries-as-400/88926/5 "2007-03-16T18:07:00Z")
we’re using iSeries Access and the Rails ODBC Adapter from Openlink at [http://odbc-rails.rubyforge.org/](http://odbc-rails.rubyforge.org/) it seems to work for our purposes.