number of devices

number of devices controls the number of database devices SAP ASE can use. It does not include devices used for database or transaction log dumps.

When you execute disk init, you can also assign the virtual device number (the vdevno), although this value is optional. If you do not assign the vdevno, SAP ASE assigns the next available virtual device number.

If you do assign the virtual device number, each device number must be unique among the device numbers used by SAP ASE. The number 0 is reserved for the master device. You can enter any unused device number that falls in the valid range of values.

select vdevno from master..sysdevices
   where status & 2 = 2

Here, “status 2” specifies physical disk.

• Setting the number of devices on UNIX
  If you are using a large number of devices on UNIX platforms, SAP recommends that you set the appropriate number of devices and user connections in the configuration file. Attempting to configure a large number of devices dynamically using sp_configure may fail.