Connecting to AS/400 hardware

In about 2-3 weeks I'm getting an old AS/400 server (something 9406, probably 6xx or 8xx) to learn OS/400 from administrators point of view.

Will I need some special hardware to connect and do IPL (and probably install OS/400)?

UPDATE: I dont have access to any twinaxial console or a way to obtain it.

There are primarily 3 types of console connections on the AS/400:

• Twinax console - Legacy connection requiring a 5250 compatible terminal or hardware emulator using twinaxial cabling
• LAN console - Common IBM Access operations console software over ethernet
• HMC console - High-end hardware console for managing partitions (virtualization)

Which one(s) you have will depend on the hardware configuration.

See System i Information (hardware) and IBM i Information Center (software) for more information.