Understanding DB Server and DB Service

[Former Member]

Greetings,

I am just getting started with SQL Anywhere and am having trouble wrapping my head around the service vs. server concept and how the two fit together. I read over the reference on DBSRV32 and the Network service but have a few questions on the fine print of these concepts. Just trying to understand how the two interact, does anyone know of a good reference that outlines how the two fit together? (e.g. I am confused on if the service just a wrapper around the DB server? What happens when you startup your serivce, etc.)

I have read the following that seem to speak to each technology individually, but nothing on how the pieces fit together.

http://dcx.sybase.com/1200/en/dbadmin/da-dbserver.html http://dcx.sybase.com/1200/en/dbadmin/services-running-running.html

Input is appreciated.

Thx, Rob

[MarkCulp · Accepted solution]

You are correct - a "service" is just a wrapper around the server:

A Windows Service (or Linux Service) is just a database server (or ML server or Relay server or ...) running as an OS service and starting and stopping the server is controlled by the Windows (or Linux) OS service manager.

HTH

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Mark, it did help. So would I need to start the DB Server with dbsrv12 cmd and then start my service? Or would the service not start up the server for me?

The reason why I am a bit confused is that I am looking over some documentation on doing a DB refresh from PROD->DEV which basically says to do just that... run "dbsrv12 c:\\mydb.db" on the .db file, then start up the corresponding service in SQL Anywhere service manager. The first step seems redundant, unless I am confused?

Thx, Rob

[MarkCulp · Accepted solution]

The service is a database server running in the background in a special mode that causes it to interact with the OS using "service" APIs... so you do not need to start/run a database server separately from the service.

BUT: I do not know your specific environment or requirements. You mention "PROD->DEV" (I presume this means "production to development") and I do not know what this means in your environment (and I would have thought that DEV->PROD would be more common?).

There may be specific requirements in your environment that requires both the service to be running (which uses one database - e.g. your production database) and another database server running (which uses an different database - e.g. your test/development database). For example, perhaps your instructions require you to run two different servers so that you can transfer 'real' data from your production database to your development database for the purpose of creating a realistic dataset for testing?

HTH