Sharepoint 2010 connection string - Q1IM 6.1

Hi all,

I have pulled the connection string from the registry location: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Secure\ConfigDb (from the SP server)...it looks like "Data Source=<sql alias>;Initial Catalog=Sharepoint_Config;Integrated Security=True;Enlist=False;Connect Timeout=15"

The config server is also using an alias mapped to "servername\instance"...my question is, can we use the alias in the connection string? and is there a specific format the string has to be in? (e.g. server=XXXXX;Initial Catalog=Sharepoint_Config;Security=SSPI;)

Thanks in advance for any guidance...loading the mapping rule and schema fails for me...verified farm credentials and passphrase are good...