Before Changing the Character Set or Sort Order

You must perform some preliminary steps before you change the character set or sort order.

Dump all user databases and the master database. If you have made changes to model or sybsystemprocs, dump them also.
Load the Language Module if it is not already loaded (see the configuration documentation for your platform for complete instructions).
If you are changing the SAP ASE default character set, and your current databases contain non ASCII-7 data, use bcp with the necessary flags to copy the existing data out of your databases.

Once you have loaded the Language Module, you can run the SAP ASE installation program, which allows you to:

Install or remove message languages and character sets included with SAP ASE
Change the default message language or character set
Select a different sort order

See the configuration documentation for your platform for instructions on using the installation program

Note: Before you change the character set or sort order, SAP ASE must have as many open databases as there are databases managed by the server. If SAP ASE does not have a sufficient number of open databases when it is re-started after a change in sort order, SAP ASE prints this message to the error log and the server will revert to the former sort order:

The configuration parameter 'number of open databases' must be at least as large as the number of databases, 
in order to change the character set or sort order." Re-start Adaptive Server, use sp_configure to increase 
'number of open databases' to at least %d, then re-configure the character set or sort order

To reconfigure the language, character set, or sort order, use the sqlloc utility, described in Utility Guide. If you are using Windows, use the Server Config utility, described in Configuration Guide > Default SAP ASE Configuration.

If you installed additional languages but did not change the SAP ASE character set or sort order, you have completed the reconfiguration process.