/etc/hosts question ..

[someone_4]

we have several boxes with differnt /etc/hosts files. What is the best way to get all the hosts files to be the same. And any specific details that I need to watch out for.And ways to work around them.

Thanks

Richard

[linuxfan · Accepted solution]

Hi Richard,

Why don't you use NIS, easy to manage, but if that is not an option then hmm..

get all the host files onto one host and lets say you have them at /tmp/host1, /tmp/host2,
where host1 is the host file from host1 and so on.

One way of generating a host file is

cd /tmp
cat host* |grep -v "\#" | sort |uniq > final_hosts_file

This will create a unique sorted list of all the hosts.

-HTH
I am RU

[Andrew_4]

Not sure if you've considered using NIS (Networking Information Service).. but that will allow you to have 'syncronised' /etc/hosts...

For details, see the NIS manual... :

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B1031-90048/B1031-90048.html

Hope this helps !

Andrew

[linuxfan]

Hi Richard,

If you are only concerned about synchronizing hosts then ofcourse setting up DNS is another option.

-Regards
I am RU

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

If you are too particular about security at your site, you may think twice to use NIS. NIS+ is tedious to configure but supports encryption. Going for LDAP with ssl encryption is too much to think.

DNS is the best way.

Sri

[Thierry Poels_1]

hey,
how about using DNS ??
this results in an extremely small hosts file, and all your IP definitions will be centralized.
regards,
Thierry.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Richard:

I'd use DNS. Make sure, however, that each server's hosts file has a 'localhost' (127.0.0.1) entry and its own hostname at a minimum.

...JRF...

[melvyn burnard]

If you do not want to use thing slike NIS or DNS, you could look at the rdist facility.
man rdist

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Richard,

Actually you need to think beyond the hosts files, you have the same problem with the /etc/services file, passwd, group, ... .

It's probably time to bite the bullet and implement BOTH DNS and NIS (or NIS+). It's very nice to be able to change an IP address or a passwd in one place and have the changes propogate thoughout your domain.

My personal preference it to resolve hostnames with DNS and everything else with NIS(+).
If you don't have them already, two of your first O'Reilly Books should be 'DNS and BIND' and 'Managing NFS and NIS'.

Get these systems up and running and life becomes much easier.

Regards, Clay

[John Bolene]

DNS is the obvious solution.

Otherwise you can create the master hosts file and rcp it to all machines assuming you can use rcp.