HP-UX

I am having a problem with a new server build that has got me completely baffled. This server has a private back end network so the way it is supposed to work is that the server thinks its ip address is 10.131.0.48 but the rest of the world knows it as 199.68.100.100 per DNS. It has to be this way for the application to install.

The problem is that nslookup from this server shows that it is using files correctly and resolves to the 10. address as it should. But when I try to ping by hostname from this same server it pings the 199. address. We have other HP-UX servers set up exactly this same way and they work as expected but they are running 11.23. This new server is 11.31. I am guessing that has something to do with it but I cannot figure out what.

root@sho1hsmbk001:/root> grep sho1hsmbk001 /etc/hosts
10.131.0.48 sho1hsmbk001.xxxxxxxxxxx.corp sho1hsmbk001 sho1hsmbk001-bk

root@sho1hsmbk001:/root> cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
# /etc/nsswitch.conf:
#
hosts: files dns
passwd: files vas3
group: files vas3

root@sho1hsmbk001:/root> cat /etc/rc.config.d/netconf
HOSTNAME="sho1hsmbk001"
OPERATING_SYSTEM=HP-UX
LOOPBACK_ADDRESS=127.0.0.1
.
.
.
INTERFACE_NAME[0]="lan0"
IP_ADDRESS[0]="10.131.0.48"
SUBNET_MASK[0]="255.255.255.0"
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[0]=""
INTERFACE_STATE[0]=""
DHCP_ENABLE[0]="0"
INTERFACE_MODULES[0]=""
INTERFACE_SKIP[0]=""

INTERFACE_NAME[1]="lan900"
IP_ADDRESS[1]="199.68.100.100"
SUBNET_MASK[1]="255.255.255.0"
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[1]=""
INTERFACE_STATE[1]=""
DHCP_ENABLE[1]="0"
INTERFACE_MODULES[1]=""
INTERFACE_SKIP[1]=""
.
.
.
ROUTE_DESTINATION[0]="default"
ROUTE_MASK[0]=""
ROUTE_GATEWAY[0]="199.68.100.1"
ROUTE_COUNT[0]="1"
ROUTE_ARGS[0]=""
ROUTE_SOURCE[0]=""
ROUTE_SKIP[0]=""


root@sho1hsmbk001:/root> nslookup sho1hsmbk001
Using /etc/hosts on: sho1hsmbk001

looking up FILES
Name: sho1hsmbk001.xxxxxxxx.corp
Address: 10.131.0.48
Aliases: sho1hsmbk001, sho1hsmbk001-bk

root@sho1hsmbk001:/root> ping sho1hsmbk001
PING sho1hsmbk001.ally-hosting.corp: 64 byte packets
64 bytes from 199.68.100.100: icmp_seq=0. time=0. ms
64 bytes from 199.68.100.100: icmp_seq=1. time=0. ms

I thought perhaps it was caching somehow and tried rebooting but it still exhibits the same behavior. If I remove the DNS entry from nsswitch.conf the server can still tries to ping itself on the 199. network. I have the same problem if I try pinging any other servers on the private network. I can nslookup and resolve to the 10. address but when I ping that server it pings the public address.

Anyone have any suggestions?

---------- Post updated at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:41 PM ----------

I've got it narrowed down but I still cannot figure out what is going on. If I remove the domain and search path from resolv.conf then it will resolve to the 10. address.

This I do not understand because nsswitch.conf tells it to look at files so it should never look at resolv.conf in the first place.

check with hp's documentation on what changed networkwise between 11.23 and 11.31 ... if nothing changed, confirm that all the required software installed properly during the build ... if possible, do a test build on another machine with the same exact specs to replicate issue ... if still a problem, contact hp support ...

good luck!

OK I fixed the problem but I'm not exactly sure what fixed it. I went into SMH and removed all references to NIS in the Name Service Switch configuration screen. After rebooting, somehow this fixed the problem. I tried listing files by date to see what changed and nsswitch.conf was the only file. The line for files is identical to what I had put in there but somehow SMH's version was better. Earlier, I thought perhaps I had some weird character in the file that wasn't showing up in VI so I tried recreating it by hand and copying it from another server that did work but was not successful. Yet, somehow, SMH was able to fix it. Go figure.