FTP "Failed to get Host Information"

[Bill Sherwood]

Briefly.. we have three vax systems. Two are dual-hosted and clustered while the third is a separate system in another building. We have for a long time used FTP to transfer data between the clustered systems and a server running Windows with FTP configured. FTP client and server is also configured on the third VAX (the separate one). But when we try to connect to any FTP site from that system, we get the following:

$ ftp 10.1.1.21
%FTP-E-HSTINF, Failed to get host information for ourvax-systemname.ourdomain from database
-RMS-E-RNF, record not found
$ ftp 207.46.236.102
%FTP-E-HSTINF, Failed to get host information for ourvax-systemname.ourdomain from database
-RMS-E-RNF, record not found

The first attempt is our internal server. The second is a site on the internet. So the domain doesn't seem to matter. Can anyone help us figure this one out? We need to be able to FTP from this system to pull data from the Windows server.

[Jim_McKinney]

Some older version-combinations of VMS/TCPIP were reported to exhibit this sort of behavior. Are you current with version and patches for your VMS versions?

[Bill Sherwood]

That would have to be a "no." This system controls a piece of shop-floor equipment and uses TCPIP for that purpose, and not much else. But due to a migration away from our main Vax systems, this one will now need to use FTP to pull from the server I mentioned, instead of having the data copied from the other vax systems.

One other item.. we *can* connect TO this system via FTP. It's connecting from this system out to other FTP sites that causes the problem.

[Art Wiens]

Actual version info might help give actual commands to check the configuration. Is this HP TCPIP/UCX or 3rd party (TCpware or Multinet or ?)?

How about anything outbound? Can you Telnet to anywhere? If NSLOOKUP is available on your version, what server does it try and reference? Does it still exist? HOSTS file?PING something by IP, by address?

Did this ever work?

Art

[Jim_McKinney]

The error message suggests that this host can not translate those IP addresses to host names - there is no reason that this should be required by FTP. So, that suggests that this is likely a bug.

Do you have DSN functional on this system - does it translate that second address to ftp.microsoft.com ? If your DSN isn't functional perhaps entering these in your local host tables will help (I suspect that this is where the RNF failure comes from)?

[Bill Sherwood]

Version information is VMS 7.1 and UCX 4.1.

We can telnet outbound to other servers. Ping works. Running NSLOOKUP fails as follows:

$ r sys$system:ucx$nslookup
*** Can't initialize resolver.

BIND is not configured on any of our vax servers, including the ones that CAN initiate FTP sessions.

I thought the HOSTS file (UCX$HOST.DAT) was only used to help resolve names to IP addresses. If we are entering the IP address, referring to a HOSTS file entry shouldn't be necessary. Am I right? And there is not entry in the HOSTS file for the vax systems that can initiate FTP sessions, either. I'm just confused on what's up with this one.

[Art Wiens]

Some products like to do a reverse lookup to try and find a name for a given address. I know in TCPware there is a logical that can be defined to stop that behaviour.

Art

[Bill Sherwood]

After I sent that last reply, I did add the entry to the UCX$HOST.DAT file, just in case. It doesn't seem to have made a difference.

[Walter Miller_1]

Once you add the entry to the HOSTS file try the ftp using the name instead of the ip address.

A google of "%FTP-E-HSTINF" returns some discussion of the same issue in 2006.

[Jim_McKinney]

Just a thought...

> ourvax-systemname.ourdomain

is this the system from which the FTP is attempted?

If so, is it registered either in its own UCX$HOST.DAT?