How do I access AS/400 using SQLAlchemy?

Short version: Please tell me how to connect to AS/400s via SQLAlchemy.

Long version

My ultimate goal is to join data from SQL Server and AS/400 to be displayed in a Flask Python application. My approach has been to get the data from each database into Pandas dataframes, which can then be joined and output as JSON. If anyone has a better approach, feel free to leave a comment. The problem with the way I'm trying to do this is that Pandas.read_sql_query() relies on SQLAlchemy, and getting SQLAlchemy to work with AS/400 is proving quite difficult.

The AS/400 is version 7.2, though another I will likely try to connect to is version 5.1.
I'm trying to access it from my computer, which is running Windows 7 and has i Access 7.1, Python 2.7, and Python modules including pyodbc and ibm_db_sa.

Without sqlalchemy, pyodbc works just fine:

CONNECTION_STRING = (
    "driver={iSeries Access ODBC Driver};"
    "system=ip_address;"
    "database=database_name;"
    "uid=username;"
    "pwd=password;"
) 
pyodbc.connect(CONNECTION_STRING)
# Queries work fine after this.

I've read these resources, among others, and tried to apply their techniques:

https://pypi.org/project/ibm_db_sa/
Connecting to IBM AS400 server for database operations hangs
SqlAlchemy equivalent of pyodbc connect string using FreeTDS

Below are some of the failed attempts and corresponding error messages that I've collected. I don't know what to put for the first part ("something+something//..."), which port to specify (446? 8471? something else? nothing?), whether to use the server's name or IP address, or whether to use the connection-string style argument for create_engine(), so I've just been trying every combination I can think of. I tried modifying the AS400Dialect_pyodbc class as suggested in the second link above, after which I tried rerunning some of the failed attempts again. I may keep trying things, but I'm just spinning my wheels at this point.

from sqlalchemy import create_engine

CONNECTION_STRING = (
    "driver={iSeries Access ODBC Driver};"
    "system=ip_address;"
    "database=database_name;"
    "uid=username;"
    "pwd=password;"
)

create_engine('ibm_db_sa+pyodbc://username:password@ip_address:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError (pyodbc.InterfaceError) ('IM002', u'[IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (0) (SQLDriverConnect)') (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/rvf5) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 43, in

create_engine('ibm_db_sa://username:password@ip_address:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30061N The database alias or database name "database_name " was not found at the remote node. SQLSTATE=08004\r SQLCODE=-30061 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 43, in

create_engine('ibm_db_sa://username:password@server_name:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1336N The remote host "server_name" was not found. SQLSTATE=08001\r SQLCODE=-1336 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8create_engine('ibm_db_sa://username:password@ip_address:446/server_name.database_name').connect()

create_engine('ibm_db_sa://username:password@ip_address:446/server_name.database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30061N The database alias or database name "server_name.database_name " was not found at the remote node. SQLSTATE=08004\r SQLCODE=-30061 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8)

create_engine('db2+ibm_db://username:password@ip_address:446/server_name.database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30061N The database alias or database name "server_name.database_name " was not found at the remote node. SQLSTATE=08004\r SQLCODE=-30061 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 45, in

create_engine('db2+ibm_db://username:password@ip_address:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30061N The database alias or database name "database_name " was not found at the remote node. SQLSTATE=08004\r SQLCODE=-30061 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 45, in

create_engine('db2+ibm_db://username:password@ip_address/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30081N A communication error has been detected. Communication protocol being used: "TCP/IP". Communication API being used: "SOCKETS". Location where the error was detected: "ip_address". Communication function detecting the error: "connect". Protocol specific error code(s): "10061", "", "". SQLSTATE=08001\r SQLCODE=-30081 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8)

create_engine('db2+ibm_db://username:password@server_name:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1336N The remote host "server_name" was not found. SQLSTATE=08001\r SQLCODE=-1336 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8)

create_engine('db2+ibm_db://username:password@server_name/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1336N The remote host "server_name" was not found. SQLSTATE=08001\r SQLCODE=-1336 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8)

create_engine('db2+pyodbc://username:password@ip_address:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError (pyodbc.InterfaceError) ('IM002', u'[IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (0) (SQLDriverConnect)') (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/rvf5) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 45, in

create_engine('db2://username:password@ip_address:446/database_name').connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError (ibm_db_dbi.OperationalError) ibm_db_dbi::OperationalError: [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30061N The database alias or database name "database_name " was not found at the remote node. SQLSTATE=08004\r SQLCODE=-30061 (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/e3q8) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 45, in

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('ibm_db_sa+pyodbc:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Unable to open 'hashtable_class_helper.pxi': File not found (file:///c:/git/dashboards/pandas/_libs/hashtable_class_helper.pxi).

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('ibm_db_sa:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError (ibm_db_dbi.InterfaceError) ibm_db_dbi::InterfaceError: connect expects the first five arguments to be of type string or unicode (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/rvf5) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 43, in

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('ibm_db:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.NoSuchModuleError Cant load plugin: sqlalchemy.dialects:ibm_db

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('db2:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError (ibm_db_dbi.InterfaceError) ibm_db_dbi::InterfaceError: connect expects the first five arguments to be of type string or unicode (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/rvf5) File "C:\Git\dashboards\web_app\pandas db2 test.py", line 45, in

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('db2+ibm_db:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError (ibm_db_dbi.InterfaceError) ibm_db_dbi::InterfaceError: connect expects the first five arguments to be of type string or unicode (Background on this error at: http://sqlalche.me/e/rvf5)

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
create_engine('db2+ibm_db_sa:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted)).connect()

Exception has occurred: sqlalchemy.exc.NoSuchModuleError Cant load plugin: sqlalchemy.dialects:db2.ibm_db_sa

I finally got it working, though it's a bit awkward. I created a blank file in my project to appease this message that I was receiving in response to one of the attempts shown in my question:

Unable to open 'hashtable_class_helper.pxi': File not found (file:///c:/git/dashboards/pandas/_libs/hashtable_class_helper.pxi).

(My project folder is C:/Git/dashboards, so I created the rest of the path.)

With that file present, the code below now works for me. engine.connect() works, but I ran an actual query for further verification that it was working. For the record, it seems to work regardless of whether the ibm_db_sa module is modified as suggested in one of the links in my question, so I would recommend leaving that module alone. Note that although they aren't imported by directly, you need these modules installed: pyodbc, ibm_db_sa, and possibly future (I forget).

import urllib
import pandas as pd
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

CONNECTION_STRING = (
    "driver={iSeries Access ODBC Driver};"
    "system=ip_address;"
    "database=database_name;"
    "uid=username;"
    "pwd=password;"
)

SQL= """\
SELECT
    MPBASE AS BASEPA,
    COALESCE(SUM(MPQTY), 0) AS PWIP
FROM FUTMODS.MPPROD
WHERE MPOPT <> '*'
GROUP BY MPBASE
"""

quoted = urllib.quote_plus(CONNECTION_STRING)
engine = create_engine('ibm_db_sa+pyodbc:///?odbc_connect={}'.format(quoted))

df = pd.read_sql_query(
    SQL,
    engine,
    index_col='basepa'
)
print df