Problems with Resolving

[bcunnin]

I've got a couple of Sunfire V120's that were setup by a previous admin. When he did so he did not setup the boxes to use any DNS server.

I have added the correct entries in resolve.conf:
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

and nsswitch.conf

Adding DNS to HOST's area.

I am still unable to resolve any address's. Another board recommended rebooting the server which I found kind of odd. Is there a process I can restart in order to get this working? Anyone have any other ideas of what the problem could be?

 

[wtrepani]

Did you also set up the domain and search lines in /etc/resolv.conf? I had similar problems once and that was the culprit.

Will

 

[bsek]

Try

Edit resolv.conf

domain xxxx.com
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx #primary server
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx #secondary server

Do u have defaultrouter file under /etc? If not create a file defaultrouter under /etc and add router ip address.

#nslookup

 

[bcunnin]

Will,
Yes I have tried that as well. I'll be damned if I know what in the hell is going on. Never seen anything like it!

It's like none of the changes I've made have taken affect. If I run an nslookup I get...
*** Can't find server name for address 127.0.0.1: Unspecified error
*** Default servers are not available

However, if I specify the server from the nslookup CLI it works fine.

Hmmm, a friend said he had similar problems but it was caused by the config card in the box. Doesn't sound right to me though.

 

[bcunnin]

bsek,
Thanks for the reply, I've done all of that and the machine definitely has a defaultrouter since it is in Atlanta and I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. (Actually I just have a REALLY long serial cable.)

Something strange is that all of these machines are acting the same way. I have 5 120's and all are dumber than a box of rocks about DNS. At least the previous admin was consistent...

 

[wtrepani]

You might try restarting nscd (name service cache daemon). It usually won't affect anything unless you are going from DNS to something else (NIS, HOSTS), etc, but it may be worth a try. It should be in /usr/bin/nscd, but I don't know the startup options. I have a startup in /etc/rc2.d/S76nscd. You are on solaris 8, right?

Will

 

[bcunnin]

Will, Yes on Solaris 8, no on the nscd.

Still at a total loss, the evil side of me that has NT experience is telling me to reboot the box.

 

[wtrepani]

OK, I'm lost, I would probably look for a reboot window You can still blame it on Bill Gates if your DNS server is Windows though

W

 

[SamBones]

A couple things...

1) Make sure your [tt]/etc/hosts[/tt] file has a localhost line like...
[tt]
127.0.0.1 localhost
[/tt]
The error message above about not finding server name for 127.0.0.1 is curious.

2) Make sure the [tt]hosts[/tt] line in your [tt]/etc/nsswitch.conf[/tt] file has [tt]file[/tt] before [tt]dns[/tt] as in...
[tt]
hosts: files dns
[/tt]
3) Do you have anything interesting in [tt]/var/adm/messages[/tt]? Any additional error messages would be helpful.

 

[bpinos]

Is one of the lines in /etc/resolv.conf set to 127.0.0.1?

If that is so, then you have to be running a DNS server on that box. So when you run nslookup, it tries to connect to itself for a domain lookup.

You could just delete that line, as long as there is at least one other nameserver specified.

 

[bcunnin]

To answer a few of the posts above...

The resolve.conf file is as follows:
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy


nsswitch.conf has files before dns

and

there are no messages in the logs...

I'm at a loss on this one, unfortunately I think I'm gonna drop back and punt, ie... reboot this coming weekend if I don't get it working by then.

 

[bpinos]

I have been assuming that you are sustituting in your posting for your resolve.conf.

Does it actually read:

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

If it does, then those are supposed to be IP addresses of your nameservers. Based on you post above, I am certain that at least one of the namesserver lines reads:

nameserver 127.0.0.1

This line should be DELETED, and then it WILL work. It is trying to use its own DNS server to look up domains. The other line that reads:

nameserver 123.456.789.10

needs to be a VALID DNS server on you network, or a network that box can get to.

 

[bcunnin]

bpinos,
Thanks for the reply.

No the entries do not read xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, they have valid ip address's of other machines on the network. I am 100% sure that it is not the localhost address of 127.0.0.1

I do know that both servers listed in the resolve.conf are working DNS servers as I can specify them from the nslookup command and everything works great.

I know that the box is acting like bind is running locally and is pointed to use it to resolve. Bind is not running and according to the limited documentation provided by the previous admin, never was. Additionally, all of the servers in this rack, configured at the same time, are acting the same.

I was hoping there was something different in Solaris 8 that I was missing. I haven't touched Solaris since 6 several years ago. (Been using Linux, BSD and HP-UX since then.) This is also the first time I've ever had one of these boxes with the smart card thinga-majig's. So a little piece of me believes it could be something with that but Sun's site doesn't exactly give much information about them and the problems that may be encountered with them.

Regardless, I don't like these boxes right now. For crying out loud I just want to resolve IP address's, not split the freakin' atom.

 

[lfoata]

You keep spelling resolve.conf, this may be a typo but just in case, it spells resolv.conf Too bad I.T. is not cash business

Luc Foata
Unix sysadmin, Oracle DBA

 

[bsek]

Do you have all clientnames and ip's in DNS server?
login into the DNS server and try nslookup with a clientname and ip. If you get same error message restart DNS process (in.named).

 

[bcunnin]

Yes, I realize that I keep spelling it wrong. Hell, I did when I created it the first time as well. Sorry for the continuing confusion. I have had it correct since before the first post. (I write a lot so spelling things correctly sometimes just pops out.)

I have however, found the problem. A space... an extra space after the second DNS server. I don't know why I put it there but I did. When I copied and pasted the lines from one server to another, that damned space went along with it of course.

Remove it, it works. Put it back in, everything goes to hell.

Thanks for all of the replies everyone!