host file and alias

[Neale Machin]

I have a 10.20 system and needed to add a host entry for an ip-address and 2 alias's.
I can ping the ip address but am unable to ping either of the aliases. The machine doesnt use NIS and teh changes made to the hosts file look ok. Any thoughts from anyone would be gratefully received

[Dave Kelly_1 · Accepted solution]

What settings do you have for the hosts entry in /etc/nsswitch.conf ?

If you nslookup the alias, what does it return ?

[Tony Constantine_1]

on your local host add an entry to the /etc/hosts


10.40.2.4 hosta hostb

try

man hosts

[John Palmer]

Hi Mark,

Are you using DNS? Do you have a file '/etc/nsswitch.conf'? If so what is in it?

You could try running nslookup...

# nslookup
Using ????? on ????

>

nslookup will display details.

> exit

Regards,
John

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Mark,

If you have the file /etc/nsswitch.conf, it should show a line like the following (providing you are using DNS):

hosts: dns[NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=continue]files

This makes sure that if the host name isn't found using the DNS or if the DNS server is anavailable, the local file will be searched.

Best regards,

Dan

[Neale Machin]

Thanks.. I'm thick . Theres a proxy on the network which didnt recognise the alias