Domain Name Completion (Ping, etc.)

[AndyOppel]

We have several new Solaris boxes here (some running 2.6, some running 2.8). On all the newly built servers, we must use a fully qualified name (hostname.domainname) to ping anything on our network. On the older servers we have here (all running 2.6), we can use just the hostname and it finds the other server. All of these servers are configured on the same network with fixed IP addresses. How to I tell the system to automatically add the domain name to unqualified host names and how do I tell it what the domain name is?

Again, on the old 2.6 servers, I can ping either way:
ping myserver
ping myserver.mycompany.com

But, on the new 2.6/2.8 servers, I must use the fully qualified form:
ping myserver.mycompany.com

There just has to be a configuration setting somewhere, but I have thus far not found it.

 

[mikeclark]

If you are using NIS check for a /etc/defaultdomain file.

 

[AndyOppel]

I found the answer in Sunsolve FAQ 1535. The /etc/resolv.conf file provides the domain name and the IP address of each DNS server (nameserver). In my case, the consultant who setup the new servers for us put the wrong domain name into this file.

Also of importance is /etc/nsswitch.conf which has a line for hosts: that controls the order in which host name resolution is carried out. For DNS, the normal entry is:
hosts: files dns

which causes the search to check the hosts file first, followed by the dns server.