SQL Anywhere® Server - Database Administration
  Connecting to a Database
    Troubleshooting connections
The steps in establishing a connection

To establish a connection, SQL Anywhere performs the following steps in order:

1. Locate the interface library    The client application must locate the interface library.

2. Assemble a list of connection parameters    Since connection parameters may appear in several places (such as data sources, a connection string assembled by the application, or an environment variable) SQL Anywhere assembles the parameters into a single list.

3. Locate a server    Using the connection parameters, SQL Anywhere locates a database server on your computer or over a network.

4. Locate the database    SQL Anywhere locates the database you want to connect to.

5. Start a personal server    If SQL Anywhere fails to locate a server, it attempts to start a personal database server and load the database.

The following sections describe each of these steps in detail.