Networker

Re: [Networker] ALL Clients suddenly started failing

2008-10-06 10:43:50
Subject: Re: [Networker] ALL Clients suddenly started failing
From: Davina Treiber <Davina.Treiber AT PEEVRO.CO DOT UK>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 15:39:44 +0100
Goslin, Paul wrote:
While I agree that maintaining a client host file is a PITA.... It's not that much effort in my experience... And worth it in the long run. Unless you have a very dynamic network with backup clients constantly being added / removed....

If you believe that then you are perfectly at liberty to convert your environment to use hosts files. However from my experience it will be a nightmare. As an example consider the case when you decide to add a new storage node and you have to add that address to the hosts file on 600 clients. I would not want to be the one tasked with that. OK perhaps your environment is not that large, but that just illustrates the fact that hosts files do not scale and DNS does.


I feel it's more practical than naïve... I now have a weekend of failed backups due to failed DNS lookups... I have no control over the DNS server... As long as the client is up and responding on the proper ports, Networker should simply back it up.... What does it matter if the reverse lookup fails, and how is that more significant than backing up your companies' data ???

The point of the reverse lookup is to verify to each machine that the other machines are what they say they are. Not everyone agrees that this is the best security method, but you have other options for this now anyway.

What else in your network stopped working when DNS went down? In most organisations this would generate a call-out and someone would be fixing it toute-suite.

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