When a database server starts, it attempts to become the default database server on that computer. The first database server
to start when there is no default server becomes the default database server. Shared memory connection attempts on that computer
that do not explicitly specify a database server name connect to the default server.
Note
It is recommended that you use the -xd option for database servers being used by deployed applications, and that all clients
explicitly specify the name of the database server to which they should connect by using the ServerName (Server) connection
parameter. This ensures that the database connects to the correct database server when a computer is running multiple database
servers.
There is no character set conversion performed on the server name. If the client character set and the database server character
set are different, using extended characters in the server name can cause the server to not be found. If your clients and
servers are running on different operating systems or locales, you should use 7-bit ASCII characters in the server name. See
Connection strings and character sets.
Database server names must be valid identifiers. Long database server names are truncated to different lengths depending on
the protocol. Database server names cannot:
begin with white space, single quotes, or double quotes
end with white space
contain semicolons, forward slashes (/), or backslashes (\)
be longer than 250 bytes
contain spaces when they are running on Unix
Note
On Windows and Unix, version 9.0.2 and earlier clients cannot connect to version 10.0.0 and later database servers with names
longer than the following lengths:
40 bytes for Windows shared memory
31 bytes for Unix shared memory
40 bytes for TCP/IP
The server name specifies the name to be used in the ServerName (Server) connection parameter of client application connection
strings or profiles. With shared memory, unless -xd is specified, a default database server is used if a server name is not
specified and there is at least one database server running on the computer.
Running multiple database servers with the same name is not recommended.
Note
There are two -n options. The -n option is positional. If it appears before any database file names, it is a server option
and names the server. If it appears after a database file name, it is a database option and names the database.
For example, the following command names the database server SERV and the database DATA:
Syntax