Database options

The checkpoint command writes all dirty pages (pages that have been updated since they were last written) to the database device.

The database options are retreived from sp_dboption:

abort tran on full log—decides how Adaptive Server treats active transactions when the database’s log becomes critically low on space:

To cancel all user queries that need to write to the transaction log until space in the log has been freed, select this option.
To suspend transactions and awaken them when space has been freed, clear this option.

allow nulls by default—affects the ability of columns in newly created database tables to accept NULL values:

If you select this option, columns in newly-created tables allow null values unless the column definitions explicitly state “not null.”
If this option is cleared, nulls are not allowed unless the column definitions explicitly permit them.

auto identity—automatically adds a 10-digit IDENTITY column in a new table when a user creates the table without specifying a primary key, a unique index, or an IDENTITY column.

dbo use only—restricts database access to the database owner.

ddl in tran—allows users to include DDL syntax within their transactions.

Generally, avoid using Data Definition Language commands inside transactions. For more information about this option, see the Adaptive Server Reference Manual.

disable alias access— if set, suppresses checking Sysalternates in an alternate database when determining if this user is (aliased to) the object's owner.

identity in nonunique indexes— automatically includes an IDENTITY column in a table’s index keys, so that all indexes created on the table are unique.

no chkpt on recovery—Sets the database so that a checkpoint record is added to the database after it is recovered due to restarting Adaptive Server.

This checkpoint, which ensures that the recovery mechanism is not rerun unnecessarily, changes the sequence number on the database. If the sequence number on the secondary database has been changed, a subsequent dump of the transaction log from the primary database cannot be loaded into it.

Check this option when an up-to-date copy of a database is kept. This prevents the secondary database from getting a checkpoint from the recovery process so that subsequent transaction log dumps from the primary database can be loaded into it.

no free space acctg—Determines whether the database enables free-space accounting and execution of threshold actions for the non-log segments.

Suppressing free-space accounting speeds recovery time because the free-space counts will not be recomputed for those segments. However, it disables updating the rows-per-page value stored for each table, so system procedures that estimate space usage may report inaccurate values.

A system security officer can change the no free space acctg option.

read only—prevents modification of any data in the database.

select into/bulk copy/pllsort—allows users to perform non-logged operations. Non-logged operations include select into for permanent tables, the bulk copy utility bcp, and the writetext utility.

You do not need to select this option to allow select into for temporary tables or to run bcp on a table with indexes, because inserts are logged.

Attempting to dump the transaction log in a database after unlogged changes have been made to the database with select only or bulk copy produces an error message instructing you to use dump database instead.

single user—allows only one user at a time to use the database.

trunc log on chkpt—truncates the transaction log (removes committed transactions) every time the database is checkpointed.

If you select this option, you cannot dump the transaction log. It may be useful to turn this option on during development work when backups of the transaction log are typically not needed.

If you select Truncate Transaction Log on Checkpoint for development purposes, clear it periodically and dump the transaction log. If you never dump the transaction log, it continues to grow, and eventually you run out of space in the database.

unique auto_identity index—if a database's auto_identity is turned on, newly-created tables automatically get a column named 'SYB_IDENTITY_COL'. This helps maintain data integrity, since unique IDs are commonly used.