ssh picking up wrong IP

[MikeL_4]

I am running HP-UX 11.31 and trying to do an ssh from one server to another, but it is picking up

the wrong IP address...

I have the host coded in /etc/hosts file:

   192.168.172.42  odcign1-0

and nslookup shows it correctly:

=>nslookup odcign1-0
Using /etc/hosts on:  tmovdb02

looking up FILES
Name:    odcign1-0
Address:  192.168.172.42

=>

The /etc/nsswitch.conf file also specifies to check hosts first:

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

But when I do an ssh it is picking up an old IP from dns, and not using hosts file entry...

=>ssh -v odcign1-0
OpenSSH_5.6p1+sftpfilecontrol-v1.3-hpn13v7, OpenSSL 0.9.8o 01 Jun 2010
HP-UX Secure Shell-A.05.60.003, HP-UX Secure Shell version
debug1: Reading configuration data /opt/ssh/etc/ssh_config
debug1: Connecting to odcign1-0 [192.168.223.160] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.168.223.160 port 22: Connection refused
ssh: connect to host odcign1-0 port 22: Connection refused

=>

Any ideas as to why ?? I've requested our network group to remove the enty from DNS, but that could take

a few days....

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

Do you have a file named like ~/.ssh/config in the home directory of the user running the "ssh" command? The old IP address might be defined in there, with something like:

Host odcign1-0
  HostName 192.168.223.160

 The system-wide SSH client configuration file, /opt/ssh/etc/ssh_config might contain similar settings too.

Also make sure that the user running the ssh command is allowed to read /etc/hosts, /etc/nsswitch.conf and /etc/resolv.conf. I've seen cases where some of these files have been restricted to root only, causing the hostname lookup use unexpected sources. (For example, if /etc/nsswitch.conf is not readable for non-root users, their hostname resolution will use the factory default order: first DNS, then NIS (if configured) and /etc/hosts as the last source, as documented in the example file /etc/nsswitch.hp_defaults.)