HP-UX / DNS / finger

[Steve Boom]

I'm trying to integrate our K570 running HP-UX 11.00 into our network via DNS.

The box currently uses the /etc/hosts file for name resolution and works fine. However, for a number of reasons I want to implement DNS.

I've configured the nsswitch.conf and resolv.conf files and this allows me to ping various hosts on our network as I would expect.

However, when I execute the finger command it just sits there and looks dumb! No response at all. You can Ctrl-C out back to the prompt.

If I then delete/rename the resolv.conf file and revert back to the /etc/hosts file the finger command works fine!

Now you might say don't use the finger command but our core application uses finger as part of its load-up routine for each user login, therefore when DNS is enabled no one can login - existing users logged-in are fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Steve

[Marc Dijkstra]

This may be a dumb Q but is the K in the dns servers db files? What does an nslookup do?

You might try and do this on the K:

#set_parms addl_netwrk

To set up the DNS connectivity as HP-UX likes it to be done..

MND

[Steve Boom]

Double checked nslookup - works fine. When you execute it tells you it's using the right name server. And when the K tries to resolve its own name that works as well (it returns the Ks fully qualified domain name).

Also tried the set_params addl_netwrk and set the domain name and name server. After doing this and committing the changes, ping worked as expected but good old finger failed as previous.

Just for info. I've also got a Linux box that I've configured the same as the K and finger works fine.

Many thanks for your prompt reply, Steve

[Marc Dijkstra]

Hmmm... OK.. I have found that if you are trying to gyp a dns/hosts lookup problem, I edit the nsswitch.conf file and do the do:

hosts dns files [NOTFOUND=return] Nis

remove the not found option between dns and files, I found that this worked with DNS for omniback and software licensing that was /etc/hosts dependant.

MND

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Steve:

With DNS configurated on the K-server, what happens when you try to telnet from a client to the K-server? Do you get an appreciable login delay?

...JRF...

[John Bolene]

Have you tried to do a reverse nslookup? IE, lookup the IP addy and get the correct answer? If that part does not work, some functions also fail.

[Steve Boom]

I've tried doing a reverse lookup and that works OK.

There doesn't seem to be a delay when telnet is used and DNS switched on.

Unfortunately I can't reboot my box easily (I've got around 200 users across 20 sites) so the nsswitch.conf change can't be implemented easily.

Anything else I could be trying in the meantime?

Thanks, Steve

[John Bolene]

You can change /etc/nsswitch.conf anytime, no need for a reboot.

FYI, I use
hosts: dns [NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=continue TRYAGAIN=continue] files [NOTFOUND=return UNAVAIL=continue TRYAGAIN=return]

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Steve:

John is correct -- no need to reboot to change the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. I use the following for hosts:

hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns

...JRF...

[Steve Boom]

Thanks for the info. You're both right - changes can be made 'on-the-fly'.

Tried both ways round but to no avail. Also tried it with just files in nsswitch.conf just to prove I'm not going mad and finger worked fine!

Please excuse my ignorance but why is finger using DNS?

Thanks in anticipation, Steve

[John Bolene]

finger -R has to look up the full DNS hostname of which it only reports the first 16 characters on my machine (seems a bit odd anyway).

doing a finger on a remote machine looks up the name FQDN and reports it but then gets connection refused

Anything else you can use besides finger?
Maybe grep for user in /etc/passwd?

[Steve Boom]

Problem now sorted - in a way!

Having decided it wasn't a DNS config problem I placed a support call with HP.

It seems that the way finger works has been changed between HP-UX v10.20 and v11.00.

v11.00 finger consults a file called /etc/wtmp and tries to do a reverse lookup on the IP address that each user has telnet'ted in from. The DNS database doesn't contain this information (it only contains hosts my users need to connect to) and therefore fails. I assume if I left the command to run for long enough it would eventually return.

v10.20 finger doesn't work like this and works fine when DNS is enabled.

HP's solution is to use the 10.20 version on 11.00. They have a 4 page document descibing how the code works.

Many thanks for your invaluable help - I've learn't a few things and your feedback enabled me to assure HP it wasn't a DNS config problem.

Regards, Steve

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Steve:

Thanks for the feedback on your response from HP. I suspected a reverse name lookup problem as the delay, but didn't know that things have changed between 10.20 and 11.0. Could you please post the HP document or the reference thereto you mention? Thanks!

Regards!

...JRF...

[Steve Boom]

I've attached the document referred to in my previous posting.

Regards, Steve

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Steve!

Sorry, no cigar...your attachment isn't readable. Could you repost again, please? Thanks!

...JRF...