Not being a Windoze admin I certainly don't know, but there is a bug in Oracle (at least through 10g) that limits the host_name in v$instance to the first 8 characters. Dick Goulet ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeffrey Beckstrom Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 7:35 AM To: oracle-l-freelists; oracle-db-l Subject: windows host name length We just received some new servers and the admin group is proposing a new naming convention for them. The name would be 12 characters in length. Are there any limitations on windows for the length of a server name? Jeffrey Beckstrom Database Administrator Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority 1240 W. 6th Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113