Production-grade Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool. IBM i / DB2 for i native via JDBC, EBCDIC-to-UTF-8 translation, COMP-3 packed-decimal handling, every BPCS file covered, scheduled deltas, Parquet / JSON / FBDI outputs. No bespoke RPG, no AS/400 expert required.
Hand-built RPG export programs and bespoke SQL against BPCS always start cheap and end expensive. Packed-decimal, EBCDIC, CYYMMDD dates and the BPCS file long-tail break them one by one.
BPCS's DB2 for i schema is not difficult to query — but it is difficult to query correctly at scale. Each module (GL, AP, AR, Manufacturing, Inventory, Order Management, Procurement, Fixed Assets) has its own file-naming convention, its own date format quirks (CYYMMDD zoned-decimal in some modules, 8-digit YYYYMMDD packed-decimal in others), its own packed-decimal precision rules, and its own EBCDIC CCSID assumptions left over from the original SSA / AS/400 days. A custom RPG export program written for GL falls over on Manufacturing's multi-member physical files. The SQL script that works for IIM breaks on MHM's date-format ambiguity. The shop-floor-hours extract crashes the IBM i with table-scan SQL because the developer didn't know HRM has no useful index for the predicate they used.
Syntra ETL's Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool ships pre-built support for every BPCS module, every file pattern, every date format and every documented quirk — plus the undocumented ones we've discovered across dozens of customer deployments. Backed by an SLA. Customers typically pay back the tool in week-three savings versus equivalent custom RPG / SQL development, and the ongoing maintenance burden (chasing Infor LX patch-level field additions, updating CCSID handling for new locales, dealing with customer UDF changes) disappears entirely.
Whether you need a one-shot bulk extract for Oracle Fusion migration, a scheduled nightly delta feeding your data warehouse, or a multi-TB historical pull of 20+ years of GLT for SOX retention — the same tool covers every case with the same governance model. And critically: no RPG developer is required on your side.
Every production BPCS module, every file pattern, every quirk handled.
GLM, GLT, GBM, GLAT for GL; APH, APT, APO, APAT for AP; RAH, RAT, RAO, RAAT for AR; FAM, FAT for Fixed Assets — full multi-company, multi-currency context, audit-trail preserved.
PSM, PSC for BOMs; RTM, RTO for routings; MHM, MHD, MHAT for work orders; HRM for shop-floor hours; MOD for operations; MAD for MRP — full effectivity-date and engineering-change history.
IIM item master, IIH item balance, ITH inventory transactions, IIAT inventory audit, LOC locations, WHM warehouses — multi-warehouse, lot / serial / costing detail preserved.
ECH order header, ECL order line, PRH / PRL pricing, SHP shipments, CIM customer master — open-order, backorder, credit-hold context preserved for Fusion OM cutover.
HPO purchase order header, HPL purchase order line, ACL supplier master, three-way-match history — open receipt and accrual context for Fusion Procurement / Cost Management.
CCM companies, MCM currencies, customer UDFs, shadow files, LXFILES / LXMODOBJ library-wide discovery — feeds the migration discovery loop without manual AS/400 screenshots.
From IBM i user profile provisioning to first scheduled delta run, typically completes in 3–5 days.
Your IBM i admin (operator or security officer) creates a dedicated *USRPRF for the Syntra extractor with read-only object authority on the BPCS libraries in scope (LXFILES, LXMODOBJ, custom libraries). No QSECOFR, no *ALLOBJ. Credentials stored in your cloud KMS — Syntra never holds them in plaintext.
Extractor runtime deployed to your cloud environment (containerised, runs on Kubernetes, ECS, Cloud Run or bare VM with network reachability to the IBM i LPAR). Output destination configured: S3 / GCS / Azure Blob for files, plus optional Fusion FBDI / HDL drop targets.
Per-file extraction scope configured (which BPCS files, which fiscal years, which companies / warehouses, which UDFs). Schedule defined: one-shot bulk, nightly delta, weekly full snapshot, or any cron schedule. Output format per file set: Parquet / JSON / FBDI.
Initial full-snapshot extract runs across all configured BPCS files in parallel with SQL key-range partitioning. For multi-TB GLT or ITH archives, throttled to off-peak windows. Signed manifest produced with counts, sums and hashes per partition for downstream reconciliation.
Scheduled delta runs execute on cron, capturing modified records since the last LST-UPD-DATE / LST-UPD-TIME watermark (or IBM i journal sequence number for files without watermark). Run logs feed your SOC 2 audit trail. Failures surface as alerts via email, Slack, PagerDuty or webhook — no silent drift.
The details that matter when the Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool has to run unattended for years.
Every extract is idempotent — re-running the same scope produces byte-identical output. Failed runs resume from the last partition checkpoint rather than starting over.
Respects IBM i workload management. Runs in a dedicated subsystem (e.g. QUSRWRK or a custom subsystem you assign) with configurable activity-level cap. Never throttles live RPG / COBOL / shop-floor activity.
Every run produces a signed JSON manifest with record counts, sum totals, hash signatures and source LST-UPD-DATE watermarks per partition — ready for downstream reconciliation.
IBM i credentials encrypted at rest in cloud KMS. Parquet output encrypted at rest with KMS-managed keys. TLS in transit between extractor and IBM i (DRDA-over-SSL) and between extractor and output storage.
Prometheus metrics exposed for extraction throughput, error rates, IBM i query latencies, queue depth. Grafana dashboards shipped. Plug into your existing observability stack.
Every IBM i connect, every SQL statement, every row count, every output write logged with user, timestamp, scope and result. Audit logs ship to SIEM via syslog or CloudTrail integration — pharma / defence customers pass on first attempt.
An Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool is a piece of software that authenticates to an IBM i (AS/400) host, connects to DB2 for i via JDBC or the IBM i Access drivers, queries the BPCS physical files (LXFILES, LXMODOBJ and any customer-added libraries) using SQL, handles EBCDIC-to-UTF-8 character-set translation and COMP-3 packed-decimal numeric conversion, and streams the resulting data to a destination of your choice. Syntra ETL's Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool authenticates via an IBM i user profile with read-only object authority, paginates large tables, captures BPCS LST-UPD-DATE / LST-UPD-TIME watermarks for delta runs, and hash-signs every output for downstream reconciliation. Output formats include Parquet for analytics, JSON Lines for downstream ETL, and FBDI / HDL for direct Oracle Fusion loading.
Custom RPG export programs and bespoke SQL always start cheap and end expensive. BPCS has 200+ physical files in active use, every one with packed-decimal numerics, EBCDIC characters and 1980s-era field-naming conventions, plus a long tail of customer-added UDFs and shadow files added over 20+ years. A custom RPG program that works for GLM falls over on the multi-member physical files used in some manufacturing modules; the SQL script that works for IIM breaks on the date-format ambiguity in MHM (where dates are stored as 7-digit CYYMMDD in zoned-decimal). Syntra ETL's Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool ships pre-built support for every BPCS file pattern, every date format, every packed-decimal field — backed by an SLA. Customers typically pay for the tool in week-three savings versus a hand-built equivalent, and avoid having to hire an RPG developer.
All of them in production use: GL files (GLM, GLT, GBM, GLAT), AP files (APH, APT, APO, APAT), AR files (RAH, RAT, RAO, RAAT), supplier master (ACL), customer master (CIM), item master (IIM), item balance (IIH), inventory transactions (ITH), warehouses (WHM), locations (LOC), bills of material (PSM, PSC), routings (RTM, RTO), work orders (MHM, MHD, MHAT), shop-floor hours (HRM), MRP (MAD), sales orders (ECH, ECL), pricing (PRH, PRL), shipments (SHP), purchase orders (HPO, HPL), fixed assets (FAM, FAT), companies (CCM), currencies (MCM) — plus customer-added UDFs and shadow files via library-wide discovery. New BPCS file patterns get folded in via quarterly extractor releases tracking Infor LX 8.x updates.
The Syntra Infor LX (BPCS) data extraction tool authenticates via a dedicated IBM i user profile (IBM recommends *USRPRF created specifically for the integration) with object-level authority granted only on the BPCS libraries in scope. No QSECOFR or *ALLOBJ authority is required, no profile shortcuts are used, and the password / SSH key is held in your cloud KMS — Syntra never holds plaintext credentials. All SQL queries route through QZDASOINIT server jobs (the standard IBM i database server jobs) which respect IBM i workload management and journal every access. SOC 2-compliant audit logging captures every connect, every SQL statement and every row count. Customers in regulated sectors (pharma under FDA 21 CFR Part 11, defence under DFARS) routinely pass internal security review on the first attempt.
Yes. The extractor includes a built-in scheduler with cron syntax and supports delta extraction on every BPCS file that exposes a watermark field (LST-UPD-DATE / LST-UPD-TIME, which BPCS maintains on most master and transactional files) or via the IBM i database journal for files that don't. Common schedules: nightly delta extract feeding a downstream Oracle Fusion staging area, weekly full-snapshot extract for backup, monthly extract of audit-trail files for SOX retention. Each scheduled run produces a signed manifest (counts, sums, hashes per partition) plus a run log captured for SOC 2 and FDA audit. Failures surface as alerts through email, Slack, PagerDuty or webhook — no silent drift.
Three primary formats: Parquet (columnar, partitioned by fiscal year and company, ideal for downstream analytics in Athena / BigQuery / Snowflake / Spark), JSON Lines (newline-delimited JSON preserving the full BPCS field shape, ideal for streaming pipelines or downstream ETL), and Fusion-native loaders (FBDI ZIPs for Journals / Suppliers / Customers / Items / AP / AR / Inventory Balance / BOM / Routing, HDL bundles for any HCM context, REST API payloads for incremental delta loads). EBCDIC fields are translated to UTF-8 in every format, COMP-3 packed-decimal numerics are unpacked to standard decimal with full precision preserved, and CYYMMDD zoned-decimal dates are normalised to ISO 8601. Custom output formats are configurable per BPCS file.
Multi-million-row BPCS files (GLT for GL transactions, ITH for inventory transactions, HRM for shop-floor hours, MHD for work-order details) are extracted in parallel using SQL key-range partitioning, with a configurable connection pool (default 8 concurrent QZDASOINIT jobs, configurable up to whatever your IBM i workload management permits). The extractor checkpoints progress per partition so a failed run resumes from the last successful partition rather than starting over. Throughput in production: roughly 2–10 million rows per hour per worker pod depending on row width and IBM i CPU contention. Multi-TB GLT extracts (20+ years of GL history) typically complete in 8–24 hours scheduled to off-peak windows.
Yes. The extractor authenticates with a read-only IBM i user profile, so no write operations ever touch the BPCS libraries. SQL queries are routed through QZDASOINIT server jobs which respect IBM i workload management — extracts can be assigned to a dedicated subsystem (e.g. QUSRWRK) and throttled to off-peak windows so live RPG / COBOL / order-entry / MRP activity is never impacted. No CL commands are submitted, no RPG programs are called, no shop-floor data-collection terminals are affected. Customers routinely run scheduled nightly extracts of multi-million-row BPCS files against live production AS/400s for years without a single user complaint or BPCS slowdown.
30-minute discovery call. We'll scope your BPCS modules, IBM i landscape, data volumes, UDF design and downstream destination — and have a working extract running on your AS/400 within a week. No RPG developer required on your side.