Please put the information on what you are trying to solve such as version and info on the dataprotector (I checked Sunsolve and they had no documents containing that).
Your original message did not mention dataprotector -
Quote:
anyone ever seen this problem
with /etc/nsswitch.conf forcing the system to look in files then dns
but the system ignores the files and goes off check the dn servers
The answer for that is yes, some application software actually does not look at nsswitch.conf or /etc/hosts without setting it up to look at them (example: Sendmail - uses DNS only unless you set it up differently).
Your test that Optimus_P asked you to try was sucessful as far as I can see. When you had only dns in the nsswitch.conf your system did not know what testftp was (ping to a IP address will always work since it's not using /etc/hosts or DNS to find out an IP for a hostname). When you put files and DNS in nsswitch.conf, then the ping to testftp worked (it found it in /etc/hosts).
And nslookup will not look at nsswitch.conf as it is a DNS only query tool to check that DNS is working