Does SQL server hostname supports hypen?

Question

Hi,

I Am trying to install SQL server 2019, since the beggining I faced a lot of problems (to install SQL Server and to configure DBs on Mirroring)

A new error I got says something about the hostname, my hostname is something like: hostname-01. Is hypen supported on SQL?

Answer 1

As per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/instance-configuration?view=sql-server-ver16

Be aware of the following information when you name an instance of SQL Server:

• Instance names aren't case-sensitive.
• Instance names can't start or end with an underscore (_).
• Instance names can't contain the term "Default" or other reserved keywords. If a reserved keyword is used in an instance name, a Setup error occurs. For more information, see Reserved keywords (Transact-SQL).
• If you specify MSSQLSERVER for the instance name, a default instance is created.
• An installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (13.x) Power Pivot for SharePoint is always installed as a named instance of "Power Pivot". You can't specify a different instance name for this feature role.
• Instance names are limited to 16 characters.
• The first character in the instance name must be a letter. Acceptable letters are the ones defined by the Unicode Standard 2.0. These letters include Latin characters a-z, A-Z, and letter characters from other languages.
• Subsequent characters can be letters defined by the Unicode Standard 2.0, decimal numbers from Basic Latin or other national scripts, the dollar sign ($), or an underscore (_).
• Embedded spaces or other special characters aren't allowed in instance names. The backslash (), comma (,), colon (:), semicolon (;), single quotation mark ('), ampersand (&), hyphen (-), and at sign (@) also aren't allowed. Only characters that are valid in the current Windows code page can be used in SQL Server instance names. If an unsupported Unicode character is used, a Setup error occurs.

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hth

Marcin

Answer 2

Hi Abraham, I'm not sure if by "hostname" you were referring to the "instance" name, but if not, then I think a hyphen in server names are allowed in SQL, but you'll need to enclose the name in square brackets in your code to avoid any errors. Hope that helps...

Answer 3

Hi @abraham flores

I Am trying to install SQL server 2019, since the beggining I faced a lot of problems (to install SQL Server and to configure DBs on Mirroring)

If you are specifying instance name during SQL Server installation, it's not possible to add hyphens in instance name.

It is suggested to use underscore (_) as an alternative.

Best regards,

Cosmog

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