Instance name specified is invalid

[be1s]

Trying to do a db server installation of a third-party application on to our server (Windows 2000 Server) running SQL Server 2000. I keep getting the following error:
"Instance name specified is invalid"

Any reason why this may be happening?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[JamesLean]

What instance name are you specifying?

--James

 

[SQLBill]

This is from the BOL......

Instance Naming Rules

An instance name is not case-sensitive.

An instance name cannot be the terms Default or MSSQLServer.

Instance names must follow the rules for SQL Server identifiers and cannot be reserved keywords.

Instance names are limited to 16 characters.

The first character in the instance name must be a letter, an ampersand (&), an underscore (_), or a number sign (#). Acceptable letters are those defined by the Unicode Standard 2.0, which includes Latin characters a-z and A-Z, in addition to letter characters from other languages.

Subsequent characters can be:
Letters as defined in the Unicode Standard 2.0.

Decimal numbers from either Basic Latin or other national scripts.

The dollar sign ($), a number sign (#), or an underscore (_).

Embedded spaces or special characters are not allowed in instance names. Neither is the backslash (\), a comma (,), a colon ), or the at sign (@).

Please refer to the BOL for more information on Instance Names.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[be1s]

Thanks.

It turns out that the third-party app is only compatible with MSDE and not SQL Server 2000.