> -----Original Message-----
> From: William.Stringfellow AT BANKOFAMERICA DOT COM
> Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2000 12:11 AM
> Subject: [NV-L] Hostname Resolution
> 
> We are looking at whether or not using /etc/hosts for name 
> resolution is
> impacting performance.  We currently have >33K interfaces in 
> our host file.

we have 12k+ interfaces and had a serious performance problem
after switching from aix-4.2.1 to 4.3.2 using /etc/hosts 
name-resolution, since the ipv6 support in aix-4.3.x slows
down /etc/hosts based name resolution by a factor of 20.
("ovstart netmon" took 4 hours to complete on a S7A !!!)

we had to migrate to dns, which is only a problem if you
don't have the dns-server on the netview-server or you have
dns-downtimes (which will practically disable netview)


another tip, you should resolve names based on the following rules:

- resolve EVERY address of ONE networking component to only ONE name

- if you have a defined service address for you component resolve the
        name of the component to this address, else define the nearest hop

e.g.: cisco-router "ASD.yourdomain" 
        interfaces: 9.8.7.1 9.8.6.1 192.168.0.1 10.2.3.1
        defined management address is 10.2.3.1 since netview resides on
10.2.3.x

        resolve:
                9.8.6.1 -> ASD.yourdomain
                9.8.7.1 -> ASD.yourdomain
                192.168.0.1     -> ASD.yourdomain
                10.2.3.1        -> ASD.yourdomain
        and
                ASD.yourdomain -> 10.2.3.1 ONLY

you can do that by having the management address as first entry in
/etc/hosts OR
writing only the management addresses to your dns name resolution.
other interfaces follow in /etc/hosts OR are written into dns reverse
resolution only.


mfG. Alfred Reibenschuh
INFORMATIONSTECHNOLOGIE AUSTRIA GMBH
TELEKOMMUNIKATION
Networkmanagement
Intranet Info-koordinator
A-1020 Wien, Lassallestrasse 5
T: ++43-1-21717-58947
F: ++43-1-21717-58979
E: alfred.reibenschuh AT it-austria DOT com