Hi Mike,
Everything you stated appears correct and the "& " should be ok. You may need to open a support case for them to look more indepth at the server logs. See KB articles on How to get the Balance diagnostic logs.
As for the credentials, try to stay within the RFC1123 guidelines which match what is stated for characters in the Installation guide. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc959336.aspx
I provided you a list of characters that I have seen cause problems over the years with various devices and management utilities:
<spaces> in passwords (EVA's fail)
Ctrl Characters such as [TAB]
*
. (period)
$
umlaut characters: ä, ö, ü
Underscores ( _ ) I have seen statistics collections w/ HDS storage navigator fail with " _ " in the password
best regards,
Don Bourque