Multi Instance Cluster Question

I decided to try and setup a multi instance cluster on my
own and seem to be fairly successful . Its SQL 2000 EE on
Windows Server 2003 EE
Just had 2 questions. When i installed the second
instance, it asked me for a virtual name.. so i gave it
one ..in my case SQL2.. and then was asked for an
instance name so i called it ins2.. Eventually this
second sql server is now called sql2\ins2 and not sql2 as
i had thought it would be.. The first instance which was
a default instance was named as SQL1 . Is this the right
way it should be ? i.e one instance called SQL1 and the
other SQL2\ins2 in my case. I was under the impression
that since its a virtual name i could get them to be
called SQL1 and SQL2
If not, then my next question is..
When i connect to those 2 virtual names from a client, it
seems to connect fine to SQL1 but when i connect to SQL2
\ins2 it fails...with SQL Server does not exist or access
denied. Any reason why ? Thanks
Answer #1.
You can have one default instance and 15 named instances OR 16 named
instances of SQL per cluster. Each named instance will be
VirtualServerName\InstanceName. For consistancy I use only named
instances on a cluster, but that is just a personal thing.
Answer #2.
You may have an older version of MDAC on your client system. I think the
breakover is MDAC 2.6, but I may be wrong. Version 2.6 and higher
understand named instances. Versions before that do not. You can make an
older version connect to a named instance if you create an alias that
includes the port number.
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com
"Ronald" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:520a01c42ca8$dfdc9680$a301280a@.phx.gbl...
> I decided to try and setup a multi instance cluster on my
> own and seem to be fairly successful . Its SQL 2000 EE on
> Windows Server 2003 EE
> Just had 2 questions. When i installed the second
> instance, it asked me for a virtual name.. so i gave it
> one ..in my case SQL2.. and then was asked for an
> instance name so i called it ins2.. Eventually this
> second sql server is now called sql2\ins2 and not sql2 as
> i had thought it would be.. The first instance which was
> a default instance was named as SQL1 . Is this the right
> way it should be ? i.e one instance called SQL1 and the
> other SQL2\ins2 in my case. I was under the impression
> that since its a virtual name i could get them to be
> called SQL1 and SQL2
> If not, then my next question is..
> When i connect to those 2 virtual names from a client, it
> seems to connect fine to SQL1 but when i connect to SQL2
> \ins2 it fails...with SQL Server does not exist or access
> denied. Any reason why ? Thanks