Steve.
    nslookup(DNS utility program) will only look for DNS names and only see /etc/resolv.conf. Whereas mostly any other client programs like ping, telnet etc. are coded to get hostname using many possible  naming scheme (like /etc/hosts, NIS, DNS etc..) Solaris control this by /etc/nsswitch.conf  where you have to specify how to resolve hostname.  So for hosts line you might have something like:

hosts:      dns [NOTFOUND=return] files

(If you have nis you need to add that here as "nis" there are couple of other options see nsswitch.conf man page  for more details).

Now above line (which I guess comes as default), will do DNS lookup and if not found simply return (do not lookup in files i.e /etc/hosts ) to continue search after dns, you need to modify hosts line like:

hosts : dns [NOTFOUND=continue] files

That will lookup for /etc/hosts also if host not found in DNS lookup.
------------

TO MAKE MATTER more complicated:
=================================
    Solaris (and many other vendors like SGI(irix) etc,..) are supporting "nscd" daemon. (Name service daemon) (do ps -ef grep nscd and see if this is running). If yes then this is might be the possible root of your problem also. nscd actually caches the hostnames found by any method (DNS, hosts, NIS, NIS+  etc. depending upon how many schemes you are using) so client programs hostname lookup queries may be answered by nscd daemon(without knowing you) and if nscd is in trouble or unable to cache name properly you may get weird results. For example if you change machine IP address (or machine name in DNS). nslookup and ping to same hostname may resolve two different IPs till nscd times out the hostname resolved and get in sync with DNS, NIS etc.. You can safely kill "nscd" daemon on your solaris machine, that will force client programs to directly use (/etc/nsswitch.conf) always. Although I found checkpoint FW tends to become sluggish (in certain situations) . So try experimenting with killing/restarting this daemon to resolve your problem also.

Good luck!

Rajeev
 

Steve Loughran wrote:

Hi All

Got a strange one here. If I use nslookup on the FW to resolve a name, it
works. when I try to ping that host its comes up with unknown host. I know
its something to do with resolv.conf of nsswitch.conf, but I cant work out
what I`ve done wrong. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

--

Steve

-------------------------------------------------
Steve Loughran, Network Infrastructure Manager
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Cambridge)
http://camsg001.millennium.co.uk/index.htm
Yamaha YZF1000R Thunderace, ICQ#: 12666311
Team Waste - Where do you want to go wrong today?

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