DNS for stand alone database server

[Doug_3]

I am unsure if I should be posting here or in the sysadmin...

I have a 11.00 database and app server that I want to have the ability to resolve dns. Right now the dns local name server and dns resolver values are empty. We use novell dns for our network.
I am assuming I need to add the novell dns server to the dns resolver field. What else do I need to do? Are there entries in nsswitchlconf or hosts or resolv.conf.
Recommendations on the order of nss?

TIA
Doug

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I would have a small /etc/hosts files with the local host, loopback, and a few often accessed hosts in it. You then set /etc/resolv.conf to your DNS server. My order for /etc/nsswitch.conf would be FILES then DNS.

[Jim Turner]

Hi Doug,

For lightning-fast response, I would also recommend setting up your server as either a caching-only nameserver or a stealth secondary for your zones. You would then list the server itself as the first resolver. We do this with our high-volume SMTP servers, and it improves performance considerably.

It also ensures that DNS changes are propagated to your server instead of having to maintain static records in /etc/hosts. Depending on the size of your environment, though, it may be easier just to do like Clay noted and put the commonly resolved names in /etc/hosts. And like Clay noted, you should have at a minimum localhost and your machine's own name in /etc/hosts.

If you don't go with caching-only or stealth secondary, note that you should probably list files first then dns in /etc/nsswitch.conf.

Cheers,
Jim