The components in your system

If you are currently running SQL Anywhere Version 5, you will have some or all of the following components in your system:

Application Your application, aside from the SQL Anywhere components.
Connection parameters SQL Anywhere Version 5.0 connection parameters. These may be assembled from an ODBC data source, or in some other way.
Driver manager The ODBC driver manager, for ODBC applications.
ODBC driver The SQL Anywhere Version 5 ODBC driver, for ODBC applications. For network applications, the ODBC driver is on the client machine.
Interface library The SQL Anywhere Version 5 interface library is used by ODBC and embedded SQL applications. For network applications, the interface library is on the client machine.
SQL Anywhere client The dbclient.exe executable and its command line, for network applications. The command line may specify the server name, and a set of network communications parameters. It may be stored in a batch file or an ODBC data source Start Line parameter. For network applications, the SQL Anywhere client is on the client machine.
The database server The SQL Anywhere Version 5 database server. For network applications, this may be on a separate machine from the client components.
The database A SQL Anywhere Version 5 database. This is on the same machine as the database server.

Database upgrades not required
You do not need to upgrade your database in order to use newer database server with an existing application.