The master database contains system tables that keep track of information about Adaptive Server. In addition, each database (including the master database) contains system tables that keep track of information specific to that database.
All the Adaptive Server-supplied tables in the master database (the Adaptive Server controlling database) are considered system tables. Each user database is created with a subset of these system tables. The system tables may also be called the data dictionary or the system catalogs.
A master database and its tables are automatically created when Adaptive Server is installed. The system tables in a user database are created when the create database command is issued. The names of all system tables start with “sys”. You cannot create tables in user databases that have the same names as system tables. See Reference Manual: Tables for detailed descriptions of system tables and their columns.
