New feature overview

Table 1-2 includes information about the major features included in Adaptive Server versions 12.5.2, 12.5.3, 12.5.3a, and 12.5.4. For detailed descriptions of these features, see the new feature documentation for the appropriate release.

**Table 1-2: New features for Adaptive Server Enterprise version comparison**
Adaptive Server feature		Description
Adaptive Server version 12.5.4
	Kerberos enhancements	Adaptive Server includes the following Kerberos enhancements: New option to specify a Kerberos principal name different from the Adaptive Server name. Expanded platform support for Kerberos. You can now use the sp_modifylogin option authenticate with to require Kerberos authentication for an individual login. sybmapname is a customizable utility to convert external user principal names to the name space of Adaptive Server logins.
	LDAP user authentication enhancements	Adaptive Server includes the following LDAP user authentication enhancements: Automatic failover from authentication against a primary LDAP server to a secondary LDAP server. Adaptive Server recovers from errors encountered when communicating with the LDAP server. Enhancements to the communication of password-expiration-related messages obtained from the LDAP server to Adaptive Server clients.
	Password complexity enhancements	You can now specify a wide range of password complexity attributes. You can also write your own stored procedures to create site-specific password complexity checks.
	Archive database access support	Archive database access provides a database administrator with the capability to validate or selectively recover data from a database dump by making the dump appear as if it were a traditional read-only database.
	Shared directory changes	Adaptive Server version 12.5.4 includes a number of changes to the shared directory structure.
	Sybase driver support	Adaptive Server now includes the following Adaptive Server Data Providers: ASE ADO.NET Data Provider 1.1 ASE OLE DB Provider by Sybase 12.5.1 ASE ODBC Driver by Sybase 12.5.1
	Dynamically loading TIBCO libraries	TIBCO JMS libraries are now dynamically loaded rather than statically linked to the Adaptive Server executable.
	JRE support	Adaptive Server version 12.5.4 includes JRE 1.4.
	Adaptive Server plug-in changes	Adaptive Server plug-in supports archive database access and password complexity.
	Updating system catalogs	The server-wide command allow updates to system catalogs takes precedence over the stored procedure settings for allow updates.
	Monitoring tables changes	Monitoring tables monSysStatement andmonProcessStatement have been changed.
	syscomments changes	When the source text of a stored procedure or trigger is stored in the system table syscomments, a query using select * is stored in syscomments expanding the column-list referenced in the select *.
	Shared memory support in Windows terminal server environments	To accommodate Windows terminal server shared memory requirements, Adaptive Server version 12.5.4 introduces the new environment variable SYBASE_TS_MODE.
	Global login trigger	Adaptive Server version 12.5.4 provides the ability to set a new global login trigger that is executed at each user login.
	Exporting set options from a login trigger	Adaptive Server version 12.5.4 enables options set inside login triggers to remain valid for the entire user session.
Adaptive Server version 12.5.3a
	Encrypted columns support	Data encryption in Adaptive Server allows you to encrypt data at the column level.The authentication and access control mechanisms ensure that only properly identified and authorized users can access data. The encrypted columns feature in Adaptive Server is easier to use than encryption in the middle tier or in the client application. No application changes are required when enabling encrypted columns support.
Adaptive Server version 12.5.3
	Secure Sockets Layer enhancements	New SSL CipherSuites supporting Advanced Encryption Standard (defined in FIPS-197) for encrypting network communications. Advanced Encryption Standards allow you to choose whether to use 128- or 256-bit encryption keys.
	Support for cross-platform dump and load for databases	Adaptive Server supports databases dumps and loads across platforms with different endian architecture. You can perform dump database and load database from either a big-endian platform to a little-endian platform, or from a little-endian platform to a big-endian platform.
	Importing statistics for proxy tables	If the relevant tables and index statistics are available when you perform update statistics on a remote server proxy table, the table catalogs are imported to the local systabstats and sysstatistics.
	top n functionality support	Use the top n clause to limit the number of rows in the result set to the number of rows specified by the integer. Adaptive Server Enterprise supports the top n clause in outer query select statements, but not in the select list of a subquery.
	Historical Server enhancements	Adaptive Server allows you to send monitoring data from Historical Server to a database on a specific Adaptive Server.
	Real-time data services enhancements	Use sp_configure to set the number for native threads and the wait time for messaging.
	Resource governor	Adaptive Server resource limits to help System Administrators prevent queries and transactions from monopolizing server resources. In Adaptive Server version 12.5.3, when System Administrators modify a resource limit, all users logged in the session see the change.
	Page allocation for partitioned DOL tables	Adaptive Server version 12.5.3 avoids using extra space by filling up existing allocated extents in the target allocation page even when these extents are assigned to other partitions.
	User connections enhancements	User connection enhancements include an updated error message and a correction on reserved sockets.
	dtdValidation	The dtdValidate option include three additional parameters: no, yes, and strict.
	sybmigrate enhancements	The sybmigrate tool allows you to migrate across versions of Adaptive Server Enterprise and supports source servers from 12.0 through 12.5.3.
	New Enhanced Full-Text Search Specialty Data Store language support	EFTS now includes language support for: Traditional Chinese on the Windows and Solaris platforms Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, and Russian on the Linux platform
	Monitor counters and sp_sysmon	Adaptive Server version 12.5.3 introduces a number of enhancements to improve some of the most commonly used monitoring tools.
Adaptive Server version 12.5.2
	Pluggable Authentication Module support	Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) support allows multiple authentication service modules to be stacked and made available without modifying the applications that require the authentication.
	Kerberos native library support	Adaptive Server provides the following Kerberos native library support: Cybersafe Library support MIT Kerberos library support Active directory interoperability for user authentication Kerberos support in jConnect
	Support for password-protected backups	You can protect your database dump from unauthorized loads with the password parameter of the dump database command. If you include the password parameter when you make a database dump, you must also include this password when you load the database.
	Access control enhancements	Adaptive Server introduces the following access control enhancements: Restricted permissions on system catalogs Improved granularity for set proxy Grant and revoke for administration commands.
	FIPS-140-certified algorithms support	SSL is the standard for securing the transmission of sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, stock trades, and banking transactions over the Internet. It relies on public-key cryptography.
	Statement cache enhancements	The statement cache is used for saving SQL cached-statements.
	XML services support	The changes in XML services enhance four main areas: Extended XML query language for the xmlextract built-in function and xmltest predicate. Enhanced datatype support in the for xml clause of select statements. Enhanced datatype support for xmlextract, xmlparse, and xmlrepresentation. Enhanced Java-XML sample code.
	Real-time messaging services	Adaptive Server 12.5.2 includes messaging functionality with the Real Time Data Services (RTDS) option package. This option simplifies the development of application that interact with messaging systems and databases.
	Web services support	A Web service is a self-contained, modular application that can be accessed through a network connection. Using a Web service, you trade performance for increased interoperability.
	IPv6 support	Adaptive Server supports Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6.)
	Enhanced Full-Text Search (EFTS) enhancements	EFTS introduces the following enhancements: Installation and directory changes Permission for shutdown index_any clauses support up to 16000 bytes New pseudo-column total_docs Primary keys
	Compressed database dump support	The Adaptive Server version 12.5.2 version of dump includes a compression parameter that allows you to compress your database dumps.
	Password-protecting database dumps and loads	The Adaptive Server 12.5.2 version of dump and load database include a password parameter that allows you to password-protect your database dumps.
	Failover on Veritas 2.1 support	You can now configuring Adaptive Server on Linux platforms for Failover on Veritas 2.1.
	Large memory support	Adaptive Server large memory support on 32-bit Enterprise Linux operating systems increases the amount of available memory in Adaptive Server from 2.7GB to as much as 64GB. Increasing the amount of memory available to Adaptive Server improves performance by significantly reducing the number of times the server must access the disk.