IBM i Support Dates (August 2018)

Do you still have an old “System i, “iSeries” or “AS/400” in your shop? Do you know the date it’s going out of support?

January 31st, 2019 you’ll see the POWER5 9405-520 and 9406-520 models go away. That means no more support from IBM. If you have a hardware problem…don’t say we didn’t warn you. For these popular older machines (and there are plenty of them still out there) that means you’ve got 161 days to plan for a hardware refresh to IBM POWER9 servers.

What’s really interesting is that when we find an old 520 or even a Power 720 Express, the customer often has not been informed of the end of service date by their existing IBM Business Partner. Part of what we try to do at iTech is ensure the IBM i community knows those important dates. If you have a machine that will go end of service in five months you shouldn’t be finding out about it now. Ideally, you should’ve known a long time ago in order to allow for budget preparation, migration downtime, or any pre-work that needs to be done before a migration happens. For example, if you’ve got an older LTO drive for your older system then you’ll need to replace your tape drive and tapes on the new POWER9. That will also further complicate your migration efforts because the older the hardware is, the harder it is to find the overlap in like technology to bring you from old to new.

On March 31st, 2019 these machines will also go end of service:

7998 61X ECLIPZ Blade

9119 FHA Power 595

9125 F2A Power 575

8203 E4A Power 520

9407 M15 Power 520 Express

8204 E8A Power 550

8234 EMA Power 560

9117 MMA Power 570

9406 MMA i570

9409 M50 Power 550 Express

On September 30th, 2019 these machines will go end of service:

Machine | Type |  Model | Product Name

7893 92X Power Chassis

8406 70Y PS700 Blade

8406 71Y PS701/702 Blade

9125 F2C Power 775

9179 MHB Power 780

9179 MHC Power 780 IOC

8202 E4B Power 720

8202 E4C Power 720 IOC

8205 E6B Power 740

8205 E6C Power 740 IOC

8231 E1C Power 710 IOC

8231 E2B Power 710/730

8231 E2C Power 730 IOC

8233 E8B Power 750

9117 MMB Power 770

9117 MMC Power 770 IOC

8246 L1C PowerLinux 7R1

8246 L1S PowerLinux 7R1

8246 L2C PowerLinux 7R2

8246 L2S PowerLinux 7R2

You still have time of course. If I were you, I’d check the machine make and model of your system and then cross-reference it with the devices on this list. If it’s not on this list, then you’ve purchased a new system in the last few years or your machine is so old it doesn’t have hardware support anymore. If you need a second look feel free to give us a call and we’ll ensure you know where you stand.