8. Post Install Tasks

After you have a working system, first of all, breath a deep sigh of satisfaction. (I also suggest eating something.) After this, there are a few post-install tasks you should perform.

The FIRST thing you should do is change the password for the 'sa' user. By default this password is blank. To set a password for sa, type the following in isql:

        1> sp_password null, 'new_pass123', 'sa'
        2> go

This will set the password. You will now need to pass this as a parameter to sybase_connect. You will also need to specify it when starting isql, which you can do by using the '-P' switch.

NOTE: Once you have ste a password, you cannot unset it. (Sybase requires a minumum of six characters in a password, so '' won't be accepted.)

You also may wish to install the Windows client tools. These can be found on a CD if you bought a cope of ASE from Sybase. Otherwise, if you are using the free 11.0.3.3 version, you can download a demo of ASE 12.0 for NT, and only install the 'ASE Plugin for Sybase Central', 'ASE ODBC Driver' and 'Sybase Central' components.

: I am not sure of the licensing issues involved in using the client tools if you haven't purchased ASE. Although I don't think it would be a problem, you should contact Sybase directly if you want to be sure.

I am open to more hints to put in this section.