How  to  use the “new” IBM graphical debugger interface

Tech tip courtesy of    Barsa Consulting, LLC    and   Dave Schnee

This tip follows a presentation at COMMON given by Cary Bates (IBM Rochester).  I have set this interface up both in the office (on the LAN with my iSeries) and at home (via the internet).  It works in both places and supports OS/400 releases V5R1, V5R2 and V5R3.

You will have to do a little setup work, though:

There are a few PTFs needed for V5R1 and V5R2 . . .

The Java 1.3 (or later) run-time environment must be installed on your iSeries.  This is product 5722-JC1 option 5.  You will also need a recent JRE on your client PC.

There is a “debug hub” job that must be started on your iSeries machine.  It may already be active but this is how it starts:

You must copy 3 “.jar” (Java Archive) files to your PC.  Locate or create a directory and copy from the iSeries:

The third .jar file is the renderer for Java help.  It must be obtained from http://java.sun.com/products/javahelp.  It's free.  Download the “jhall.jar” file and put it into the chosen directory on your PC. 

These 3 files must be available to the Java runtime when you start the debugger interface.  Probably, the best way to arrange this is to add them to the CLASSPATH environment variable.  Of course, the JRE should already be in your CLASSPATH (it probably installed itself there).

You're ready to go!  Either start a “command prompt” and enter “java utilities.DebugMgr” or create a shortcut that does it for you.  The rest of the usage is through the GUI. The help is actually helpful.

If you're doing this from “outside” the office firewall, you will need port 4026 open which is the “single point of contact” for the user interface.  Note that port 4026 is registered in the iSeries service table as “as-debug”.

Enjoy!