server name

[David Lin_1]

What will be the suggestion if I have a server name longer than 8 characters?
Does hpux 11.x support a server name longer
than 8 characters? Why only 8 characters!!

[Andreas Voss]

Hi,

have a look at /usr/include/sys/param.h
There is a line:
#define MAXHOSTNAMELEN 64 /* ... */
So you can see that of course you can have a hostname longer than 8 characters.

Greetings

Andrew

[Terry Gibbar · Accepted solution]

You could encounter the following problems if your hostname exceeds eight
characters:

1. UUCP: If a remote system calls an HP-UX system that has
a hostname greater than eight characters, uucico(1M) reports
that system as 'unknown'.

2. CDE: The CDE ToolTalk component uses the uname system
call, while the remainder of the system uses gethostname. You
must specify a UUCP nodename.

The UUCP nodename is automatically set to the value of the
hostname. However, eight characters is the maximum length for a
UUCP nodename. If a hostname exceeds eight characters, you must
separately specify a shorter UUCP nodename.

3. SD-tools: 'swinstall' returns an error indicating the
'host can't be found'.

4. Ignite: When clients are booted directly from the
BOOT_ADMIN> prompt (on the Ignite server), everything runs
fine until you get to the hostname confirmation screen.

At this point, one of two things could happen:

A. You will get a hostname that you did not specify.

--OR--

B. You will get the 'unknown_35' error. This error indicates
that the hostname is too long.

5. set_parms: When using set_parms to set the system name
after an installation, though HP-UX 10.20 allows a long
hostname, you will receive a warning about uname using a
NODENAME of the first eight characters of the name.

You will not have any problems until you reboot your system.
When you reboot, the hostname is not set, and most of the
networking products (such as NFS client) do not start.

6. OpenMail: There is a scenario at the unix.out process
whereby a FROM address is produced with a hostname. This address
is limited to eight characters. E-mail relies heavily on the
correct system name.

[David Lin_1]

I also find in /usr/include/sys/utsname.h there's a line
# define _SYS_MNLN 9 /*length of strings
returned by name(OS) */
I guess I just cannot have a server name
longer than 8 characters.
Thanks for all yor reply.

[Neale Machin]

We have several lexmark printers attached to the network via small axis boxes
These need IP configuring on them and then all you have to do is
1. ensure you can see it from the HPUX Server
2. Add ip and alias to hosts file
2. cd /tmp
3. ftp
4. get axinstall
5. On HPUX server sh axinstall
6. Answer prompts (Self explanitory)
The printer should then be configured.

Sorry don't know the price of axis-boxes