RRH@vm.nrc.ca (04/23/91)
Hello Netters, Our AIX user has run into another question/problem. On our SUNs & SGIs the command ping vm works. The host vm has a fully qualified name of vm.nrc.ca . The AIX, SUN and SGI are in the di.nrc.ca domain. However the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca The /etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca. Is there any way to tell the AIX machine to behave like the others or are we stuck with it? Thanks in advance. Ratilal Haria
Ephraim Vider <P88036@BARILVM.BITNET> (04/24/91)
In article <1991Apr23.185952.29156@nrcnet0.nrc.ca>, RRH@vm.nrc.ca says: > >Hello Netters, >Our AIX user has run into another question/problem. On our SUNs & >SGIs the command ping vm works. The host vm has a fully qualified name >of vm.nrc.ca . The AIX, SUN and SGI are in the di.nrc.ca domain. >However the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca The >/etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca. Is there any way to tell the >AIX machine to behave like the others or are we stuck with it? >Thanks in advance. Ratilal Haria I guess you are stuck with it. This feature "works as designed" (IBM words). The name resolver sticks the domain name if you don't have a dot in the hostname, and doesn't add anything if the name has a dot. It never chops off domain parts as other resolvers. Hang on there... Ephraim
fsfrick@bones.lerc.nasa.gov (David Fricker) (04/24/91)
In article <1991Apr23.185952.29156@nrcnet0.nrc.ca> RRH@vm.nrc.ca writes: >However the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca The >/etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca. Is there any way to tell the >AIX machine to behave like the others or are we stuck with it? >Thanks in advance. Ratilal Haria We have a vm system here also, and I just tried 'ping vm'. It works just fine. I believe it has always worked for us. For the record, I have an RS/6000 model 530 running AIXv3.1 (3003). The system was installed in the standard way, i.e. no special configs. My suggestions are to: try pinging the address (not the name), check the name resolution on the Irises, and double check the name server's host table. Good luck. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Fricker | phone: 216-433-5960 NASA Lewis Research Center | M.S. 5-11 Cleveland, Ohio 44135 | email: fsfrick@bones.lerc.nasa.gov
freese@dalvm41b.vnet.ibm.com ("Bradley T. Freese") (05/15/91)
RRH@vm.nrc.ca writes: > Hello Netters, > Our AIX user has run into another question/problem. On our SUNs & > SGIs the command ping vm works. The host vm has a fully qualified name > of vm.nrc.ca . The AIX, SUN and SGI are in the di.nrc.ca domain. > However the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca The > /etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca. Is there any way to tell the > AIX machine to behave like the others or are we stuck with it? In a word, yes. The behavior you report is standard for AIX. Basically, AIX has two methods for resolving a name, based on whether it has a period ('.') in it. If the name has a period *anywhere* in it, AIX simply passes it to the domain name servers unchanged. If the name has no period in it, AIX appends the domain name found in /etc/resolv.conf and passes the result to the name servers. Either way, if the name servers do not respond, AIX searches through /etc/hosts and then quits.
jackv@turnkey.tcc.com (Jack F. Vogel) (05/15/91)
In article <9105142216.AA18344@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> freese@dalvm41b.vnet.ibm.com ("Bradley T. Freese") writes: >RRH@vm.nrc.ca writes: | |> Hello Netters, |> Our AIX user has run into another question/problem. On our SUNs & |> SGIs the command ping vm works. The host vm has a fully qualified name |> of vm.nrc.ca . The AIX, SUN and SGI are in the di.nrc.ca domain. |> However the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca The |> /etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca. Is there any way to tell the |> AIX machine to behave like the others or are we stuck with it? |In a word, yes. The behavior you report is standard for AIX. Standard on the 6000 maybe which still has an older level of BIND. On AIX 1.2.x which has BIND 4.8.1 what he is asking for will work. If I say 'ping host' the resolver (the application interface half of BIND) will first formulate a query of 'host.la.locus.com', if this is resolved it stops, however if it fails it will next try 'host.locus.com'. |Basically, AIX has two methods for resolving a name, based on whether |it has a period ('.') in it. If the name has a period *anywhere* in |it, AIX simply passes it to the domain name servers unchanged. If |the name has no period in it, AIX appends the domain name found |in /etc/resolv.conf and passes the result to the name servers. Either |way, if the name servers do not respond, AIX searches through |/etc/hosts and then quits. Your terminology is a bit confused here. You speak of two entities 'AIX' and the 'nameserver'. This is not correct, the exchange takes place between the two halves of the BIND package: the resolver and the nameserver. The resolver will necessarily run on the AIX system, the nameserver may or may not, depending. The resolver is a set of routines in libc.a that an application makes use of. When you use 'ping' it calls gethostbyname() and that routine in turn makes use of the resolver routines. The problem as I said, is that the resolver/nameserver code on the 6000 is very old, I don't even know what BSD sid level it is. More recent BSD code behaves in the way this user is describing, and as he notes SUN and SGI have provided the more recent code, as we did in the AIX 1.2.x product on the PS/2 and 370. I have said this before and I will say it again, for customers on the Internet BIND is critical! It is what makes an internet with thousands of hosts possible. It is important, in my estimation, to provide customers with the current level of functionality in this code. So, the 6000 support folk should, in my opinion, seriously consider upgrading their code as well. Furthermore, the code is reasonably portable, it should be a painless task, and think how many happy faces you'll get :-}. Disclaimer: I don't speak for LCC, and certainly not for IBM. -- Jack F. Vogel jackv@locus.com AIX370 Technical Support - or - Locus Computing Corp. jackv@turnkey.TCC.COM