Where to get a free copy of Sybase ASE

Sybase ASE is a commercial software product, so the obvious way to get it is to buy it. This can be done online at the Sybase E-shop. Alternatively, contact your local Sybase office.

But maybe you don't want to spend the money for a full ASE production license, but you would like to run ASE -- for example for evaluating ASE, for development, or for preparing yourself for an ASE certification exam. There are a number of options to get a free copy of ASE, as outlined below.
Note that it is legally not allowed to run production systems on these free versions of ASE, except for the Express Edition.

Apart from the downloadable versions described below, it is now also possible to run ASE on the Amazon cloud platform against very modest costs. More details are here.

Step 1: download the base product
Before you can run ASE, you'll need to have the full ASE base product installed. To get a free copy, these are your options options:

The free-for-production "Express Edition" of ASE 15.5 for Linux (but without any licensable options).

The "Developer's Edition" of ASE 15.5 for Linux, Windows and Solaris.

"Developer's Edition" of ASE for other platforms (with most licensable options enabled). This isn't completely free (though certainly cheap).

NB: Since mid-2009, the free versions of ASE 11.0.3 and 11.9.2 for Linux are no longer available from www.sybase.com....

Details about these free ASE versions:

A free "Express Edition" of ASE 15.5 for Linux can be downloaded here. While the ASE Express Edition is limited to 1 server engine, 2 Gb of memory and 5 Gb of disk space per server, the great thing is that this edition is free for production purposes! (note: these limits apply to an individual ASE server instance, NOT to the hardware itself -- if you want, you can run multiple ASE Express Edition servers on a multi-CPU Linux box).
Note that there is no hard limit on the number of user connections as with the Developer's Edition.
Also note that the licensable options (such as ASE_LDAP) are not enabled in this free-for-production Express Edition; in fact, these options cannot even be purchased for the Express Edition, but only for the ASE Small Business Edition (ASE_SBE) and the Enterprise Edition (the full-blown, unrestricted version of ASE). Also note that the options XML, Java, XFS and Webservices are included in the base version of ASE 15 (in 12.5, these were separate license options).
NB: when installing ASE on Linux, check out this installation guide and this FAQ.
NB2: for a free copy of enterprise-grade Linux, go here.

The free Developer's Edition for ASE 15.5 can be downloaded here. It is currently available for Linux, Solaris and Windows. This edition has most license options enabled, but it also has a pretty tight limit of 25 user connections. Also, the Developer's Edition may not be used for production purposes, as is allowed for the Express Edition.
When you're running ASE on Linux, note that you won't be able to run this on older versions of Linux such as RedHat 7.x: you really need to run RH Enterprise Linux (or similar). If you do not want to pay for RHEL, go here.
Note that the Developer's Edition for earlier ASE versions is not available anymore.

A cheap (though not entirely free) "Developer's Edition" of ASE can also be purchased from the Sybase e-shop. This version is available for most platforms. A license is listed for about US$200, and apparently you'll receive the software on CD (so you won't have to download it). Indeed, this is not free, but it's still a lot cheaper than a full, regular license.
For more information, go to eshop.sybase.com, choose "Adaptive Server Enterprise" from the drop-down box, and finally choose "ASE Developer's Edition".

Step 2: download bug fixes (EBFs)
For Linux, MacOS and NT, you can download patches (EBFs) from the public Sybase website without having a Sybase support contract. Go here:http://www.sybase.com/downloads
When you can download EBFs, it is a good idea to install the most recent patch every now and then so that you can benefit from bug fixes and new features.

Step 3: documentation
Once you have the ASE software, you'll also need the documentation. Follow this link for information where to get ASE documentation.

Remarks
Some things you should be aware of:

While you can download bug fixes without a support contract, this doesn't mean a support contract is useless. On the contrary: with a support contract, you can request bug fixes to be delivered on CD -- that's handy when you realise that some of those EBFs are hundreds of megabytes in size.
Also, a support contract entitles you to free upgrades to the next major ASE release (i.e. 11.9 -> 12.0 -> 12.5 -> 15.0 -> 15.5); without a support contract, this will not be possible. Also note that the 'free' bug fixes are available only for a limited number of platforms.
Lastly, a support contract allows you to log cases -and get answers- with Sybase Technical support when you run into problems.

For all these downloads, note that the files to be downloaded are *big* (tens to hundreds of megabytes). This is especially true for 12.5 and later: you will need to download the equivalent of two CDs full of data. So think twice before you try to download this stuff over a single phone line...
If downloading is not an option, you can also order most of these versions on CD from the Sybase E-shop; this will cost something, but not nearly as much as a regular license..

Other free Sybase products
Some other Sybase-related evaluation/trial versions:

Not ASE-related, but worth mentioning anyway: evaluation/trial versions of some other (non-ASE) Sybase products -- including the new JBuilder-for-Sybase -- can be found here

It's a good idea to regularly check the Sybase Developer Network (SDN) pages - there is often some software available for download.

Since mid-2009, Sybase made available Amazon Machine Images for a number of products, including ASE, RepServer and IQ (details here). This opens up an interesting new way of getting your own private Sybase installation to play with. The product all run as developer editions or evaluation versions on the Amazon cloud platform.
Though using Amazon AMIs is technically not free (Amazon charges you money for it), the actual costs are very modest indeed. I test-drove these AMIs myself and wrote about my experiences -and the costs- on the data management blog. Check it out!

Get yourself a free copy of enterprise-grade Linux
Since free versions of Sybase ASE are available for Linux (see above), you may want to get a free enterprise-grade version of Linux as well. More information is here.

This document is located at www.sypron.nl/get_ase_soft.html

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