I Built a Real-Time Monitoring Dashboard for an AS/400 with n8n and React

If you work with IBM i (AS/400), you know the pain. Your system runs critical business logic, but monitoring it feels like checking a car engine by listening to the sounds it makes. I wanted a real-time dashboard. Something visual. Something that tells me when jobs fail, when disk usage spikes, or when a scheduled task does not run on time. The problem? The AS/400 was not designed to talk to modern web apps. So I connected the dots with n8n in the middle and React on the front end. Here is how I built it. The Problem With AS/400 Monitoring Most IBM i shops rely on one of two things: WRKACTJOB on a green screen, or expensive enterprise monitoring tools that cost more than your car. Neither option works well for a small team that wants fast, visual feedback. You end up checking things manually or finding out about problems hours after they happen. I needed something that: Polls the AS/400 on a schedule Collects job status, disk usage, and message queue alerts Pushes that data to a fronte