Using Configuration Files

Use a configuration file to store server startup options.

The @data option allows you to specify environment variables and configuration files on the command line. To specify a configuration file, replace data with the path and name of the configuration file:

start_iq @configuration_filename.cfg dbname.db

If a startup parameter is passed from the command line and the same parameter exists in the .cfg file, the value in the command line overrides the value in .cfg file.

Configuration files can contain line breaks, and can include any set of options, including the @data option. Use a number sign (#) to designate lines as comments. An ampersand (&) character that appears by itself at the end of a line indicates that the previous token is continued on the next line. See the Utility Guide for a complete list of switches.

Default Configuration File

When you start a server and do not include any command line parameters or specify a configuration file, IQ retrieves the start-up parameters from a default configuration file, default.cfg, in the %IQDIR15%\scripts directory. The default.cfg file is also the source of parameters for the Service Manager, the params.cfg file used by Sybase Central, and for multiplex configurations. You can maintain consistency by editing parameters in default.cfg.

To increase the amount of virtual memory, change the parameters in default.cfg. To reduce the virtual memory that other programs use, add swap space to machines or reduce IQ memory demands (cache sizes, thread count, stack size, etc.).

Security and Configuration Files

You can use the dbfhide (File Hiding) utility to encrypt your configuration files. If you specify log file parameters (-o logfile) in encrypted files, the log is not available to the Sybase IQ Agent or start_iq, which cannot display server log information back to the database administrator. You may want to add parameters that do not require encryption on the command line or in a separate configuration file. For example:

start_iq @encrypt_params @other_params

start_iq @encrypt_params -n myserv -c 400 -o %IQDIR15%\logfile\myserv.log

For more information, see SQL Anywhere Server - Database Administration