Problems with remsh. Odd Error.

[Guy Mengel]

Here is the error: (using remsh)
I included the command string too.

$ remsh powhite -l maui ls
remshd: Couldn't look up address for your host

And the error using rlogin:
$ rlogin powhite -l maui
rlogind: Host address mismatch..



I have 10 HP 9000/743 systems running HPUX 10.20 which periodically need to remsh to another HP 9000/800. All of the systems work fine except for 2 of them.

NIS is not running.
resolv.conf is the same on all systems
You can ping both ends.
You can do an nslookup on both systems.
The .rhost file on the target system is set up to allow access..
DNS is being supplied by an NT centralized source.

I have re-entered DNS information for failing systems with no effect.

I am stumped..any ideas?

[Alex Glennie · Accepted solution]

Does the problem go away if you mv /etc/resolv.conf out of the way ? If so there maybe 2 possible causes :

According to the hosts.equiv man page, if you are in a DNS environment,
the hostnames in .rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv must have the domain name
appended to the hostname, and that name must match the hostname
returned by gethostbyaddr (look up hostname by IP address).

If you've already done this, then the cause oft his problem is on your
DNS name server. It may not return your hostname due to a typo or
omission.

The failure is caused by the DNS being given the IP address of your
host, and trying to get a match in its' "reverse lookup" files.

You can verify this on your host by using nslookup to look up your
hostname on the DNS database by both the IP address and hostname.

For example:
# nslookup hp1 # Example DNS lookup by hostname
using nameserver: example.alcoa.com
address: 192.15.25.254

name: hp1.alcoa.com
address 192.15.25.6

# nslookup 192.15.25.6 # Example DNS lookup by IP address
using nameserver: example.alcoa.com
address: 192.15.25.254

name: hp1.alcoa.com
address 192.15.25.6

The DNS has two sets of files. One is used for hostname lookups
to map hostname to an IP address (db.mydomain.com for example)
and others are used for IP address lookups to map IP addresses
to hostnames (e.g. db.192.15.25). These latter files are called
DNS Reverse Lookup files (also called "IN-ADDR.ARPA" files.

The problem is most likely a typo in the PTR record. For example,
if your DNS domain is alcoa.com, your node is called hp1, and it's IP
address is 192.15.25.6, there should be a PTR record in the db.192.15.25
file on the DNS ser that reads as follows:

6 IN PTR hp1.alcoa.com.

Please note the PERIOD at the end of the PTR record. A common mistake
is either a typo or a missing period on the hostname.

[Kofi ARTHIABAH]

hmm... you might want to also check:
/etc/nsswitch.conf on the failing machines - if they are different from the other machines , copy them over.

2.Also make sure that there are no limiting entries in your respective /var/adm/inetd.sec

3.try adding localhost to the .rhosts file and then
remsh localhost -l maui ls

4.check your /etc/inetd.conf on the two servers and compare them with the other servers.

5.Could you possibly have duplicate IP addresses somewhere?

happy hunting.

[Guy Mengel]

Thanks Alex too! You both pointed me in the right direction.

[Guy Mengel]

Thanks Kofi! I should have checked...
The "reverse" nslookup for the IP address
returned the name lasr04pa...should have been
lasr04pe..
Dang! it is better to have another set of eyes...

Anyway...thanks so much!