Migration from a down level version of software on an older machine to the most current OS400 on a newer machine generally requires a professional.
If your system were on a more current version of OS400, a user can do a “save & restore” version upgrade (takes about 15-20 hours). A save & restore upgrade means the newest OS400 is loaded on the current system. Then all the PTFs (patches) are applied. At this point, the entire system is saved — the newest OS400, the users program libraries, his data and users profiles by tape and restored on to the replacement system.
On the other hand, when a user is on an older system (i.e. 600, 400, etc), it cannot support the newest OS400 versions. In this case, an iSeries professional does a “scratch install” — he is starting from scratch (takes about 20-30 hours). He loads the newest OS400 on the replacement machine with the PTFs to have the most current supported version of OS400. Next, he saves and restores the program libraries and data files from the older current machine and loads these onto the replacement iSeries. Testing may be required at this point because the objects are different between OS400 versions (said differently, although unlikely, there may be minor differences with the programs and data on V4R4, for example, that may require the iSeries to make minor adjustment for the version upgrade).
Next, the user profiles have to be recreated. This means the iSeries professional has to recreate user addresses, security levels and passwords, and test that the user profiles are working properly.
In our experience, it takes an IT professional to perform a “scratch install”.