Lee Markum proves you can read data from an AS400 via PolyBase:
Before I dive into that, why was I interested in this feature? What did I hope to gain? Well, first of all, there was definitely the motivation of wondering, “Can we get this to work?” Secondly, and more practically, the promise of SQL Server Data Virtualization is to make other data sources available without using a Linked Server and without the time it takes to develop an ETL process to move the data. On a related note, you can cut out the time it takes for an ETL job to actually move the data somewhere like a data warehouse or flattened tables for reporting. Third, the Polybase feature has a built in engine that can provide query performance not available via Linked Server. Fourth, I wanted to provide a way for developers to query data in the AS400 without having to learn the different syntax required by the AS400 iSeries. Fifth, query writers can also join the external able to local SQL Server data.
Lee used the ODBC driver functionality; click through to see how that worked and what needed to change.