Middleware object naming conventions

When installing and configuring middleware with the Control Desk installation and configuration programs, observe the conventions for object names that are described in this topic.

The following table lists the restrictions for names of middleware objects.

Table 1. Middleware object naming conventions
Header	Header
DB2® naming conventions for group names, user names, and user IDs.	Group names and user IDs on Linux and UNIX operating systems can contain up to eight characters and must consist of lowercase characters only. Group names and user names on Windows can contain up to 30 characters. Names and IDs cannot be any of the following values: USERS, ADMINS, GUESTS, PUBLIC, LOCAL, or any SQL-reserved word. Names and IDs cannot begin with IBM®, SQL, or SYS. They must also not begin with the underscore (_) character.
DB2 naming conventions for DB2 instances.	Instance names can have up to 8 characters. On Windows, no instance can have the same name as a service name.
DB2 naming conventions for passwords.	For UNIX systems, passwords can be a maximum of 8 characters. For Windows systems, passwords can be a maximum of 14 characters. If these limitations are too restrictive, you can manually install DB2. For UNIX systems with DB2 before DB2 9.7 or DB2 9.5 with fixpack 4, or Linux on IBM System z®, passwords can be a maximum of eight characters. For Windows systems with DB2 before DB2 9.7 or DB2 9.5 with fixpack 4, passwords can be a maximum of 14 characters. For UNIX or Windows systems with DB2 9.7 or DB2 9.5 with fixpack 4 or later, or later versions of DB2, passwords can be up to the maximum number of characters supported by your operating system.
IBM Security Directory Server conventions for databases and database aliases.	Database names must be unique within the location in which they are cataloged. For Linux and UNIX, this location is a directory path. For Windows it is a logical disk. Database alias names must be unique within the system database directory. When a new database is created, the alias defaults to the database name. As a result, you cannot create a database using a name that exists as a database alias, even if there is no database with that name. Database and database alias names can have up to 8 characters. Be mindful that the special characters @, #, and $ are not common to all keyboards. Avoid using these characters when creating a database name.
IBM Security Directory Server conventions for users, groups, databases, and instances	Values cannot be longer than 8 characters. Do not use any of the following values: USERS, ADMINS, GUESTS, PUBLIC, LOCAL, or idsldap. Values cannot begin with IBM, SQL, or SYS. Values cannot include accented characters. Values can include characters A through Z, a through z, and 0 through 9. Values must begin with characters A through Z or a through z. Double-byte characters cannot be used in administrator passwords values. Passwords cannot contain the following special characters: ` ' \ " \|
WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment	The administrator name cannot contain the following characters: / \ * ,: ;=+?\|< > & % '"] [> # $ ~ ( ) ! The administrator name cannot begin with a period. The administrator name cannot contain leading and trailing spaces. The administrator password must consist of 8 characters.
Control Desk installation and configuration programs	The Control Desk installation and configuration program do not validate that your password is compliant with the operating system of the target host. Ensure that the password values you provide are valid for your environment. You cannot use the '%' character on Windows or !, $, #, % characters on UNIX. The Control Desk installation and configuration program do not check for accented characters in user name values. The use of accented characters can cause errors. Do not include the underscore character (_) when entering host names. Using this character causes an error during middleware installation.

Important: When entering LDAP values for product installation panel fields, in LDIF files, or directly into a directory instance, be aware of the product-specific syntax rules for using special characters in an LDAP string. In most cases, special characters must be preceded by an escape character to make them readable by the directory server. Failing to escape special characters contained in an LDAP string used with Control Desk result in Control Desk errors.

Many directory server products consider a blank space as a special character that is part of the LDAP string. If you enter an LDAP string that contains a blank in a field, you encounter Control Desk errors that are difficult to troubleshoot. You must precede any blank characters with an escape character. See the product documentation for your directory server for more information about special characters in LDAP strings.