Hi Eric,
In SQL Anywhere single databases can be started and stopped using SQL commands.
For example you could start a server called "MyTestServer" (running no databases):
dbsrv12 -n MyTestServer -su SecretPassword
The -su option sets the password for the utility db. The utility db is a database that can be connected to on any server, even if its not running any normal databases.
You could then connect to the utility_db on the server and issue commands to start and stop individual databases:
dbisql -c "Server=MyTestServer;DBN=utility_db;UID=dba;PWD=SecretPassword" -nogui "START DATABASE C:\MyDB.db"
You could also put START DATABASE commands for all your databases in a SQL file and start them all using:
dbisql -c "Server=MyTestServer;DBN=utility_db;UID=dba;PWD=SecretPassword" -nogui StartAllDBs.sql
dbsvc.exe can be used to create a new service that starts the server with no databases running (and the custom utility_db password)
The online DCX contains more detail about these features:
http://dcx.sybase.com/index.html#1201/en/dbadmin/utility-db-dbfiles.html
http://dcx.sybase.com/index.html#1201/en/dbadmin/dbsvc-service-dbutilities.html
Hope this helps,
Mikel Rychliski