All three products use different models for managing devices and allocating disk space initially and later, reflecting the different uses for the products. For example:
In Adaptive Server Enterprise you allocate space in database devices initially using DISK INIT and then create a database on one or more database devices. You can add more space using the ALTER DATABASE statement or automatically using thresholds.
In IQ you allocate space initially by listing raw devices in the CREATE DATABASE statement. Additional space can be added manually using the CREATE DBSPACE statement. While space cannot be added automatically, you can create events to warn the DBA before space is actually needed. IQ can also use filesystem space. IQ does not support Transact-SQL DISK statements, such as DISK INIT, DISK MIRROR, DISK REFIT, DISK REINIT, DISK REMIRROR, and DISK UNMIRROR.
Adaptive Server Anywhere is similar to IQ except that the initial CREATE DATABASE statement takes a single filesystem file instead of a list of raw devices. Adaptive Server Anywhere also lets you initialize its databases using a command utility dbinit, which IQ does not support.
For information on disk management, see Sybase IQ System Administration Guide.
