A database device stores the objects that make up databases. The term device does not necessarily refer to a distinct physical device: it can refer to any piece of a disk (such as a disk partition) or a file in the file system that is used to store databases and their objects.
Each database device or file must be prepared and made known to Adaptive Server before it can be used for database storage. This process is called initialization.
After a database device has been initialized, it can be:
Allocated to the default pool of devices for the create and alter database commands
Assigned to the pool of space available to a user database
Assigned to a user database and used to store one or more database objects
Assigned to store a database’s transaction logs
