7.9.7 has some bugfixes and many security improvements. I didn’t read about any of the bugfixes having any relation to your issue, though. But sure, go for 7.9.7.
Well, things seem to be working better. I installed PHP7.0, took an unreasonably long and frustrating time to get it connected to the iSeries, and ran the import job again. It takes a while, but it’s under ten minutes now. Before, it would time out after twenty. Not the fastest, but for over 2,700 records, reasonable enough. Thanks for the help, and I’m sure I’ll have more to ask as we keep trying to use the CRM with real users.