Hello 3000-l Friends,

Re: Search priority of RESLVCNF, HOSTS and NMMGR/DNS and Caching

I received additional mail & questions on this topic and thought the answers
would be useful to the 3000-L folks.

1. I am grappling to understand RESLVCNF, ... trying to determine whether or not
I have good and sufficient reason to point my 3000 at our DNS. First, I tried to
RTFM, and searching the LaserROM for RESLVCNF, RSLVSAMP, and resolv.conf was
almost entirely disappointing. The two identical hits on resolv.conf did not
clarify whether or not using it will give me what I want. Can you recommend any
sources / resources?  

The documentation provided in the HP3000 manuals focus on the configuration.  I
found the best source of Concepts information on DNS is the O'Reilly book.

Title:      DNS and BIND
Author:     Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu
Publisher:  O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.


2. When/why should DNS be used or not used ?

From my perspective (HP uses DNS internally) I see no reason or case where you
would not want to use DNS.  From my test 3000's I use DNS to access every system
I need to access World Wide with out any concern about the IP address of the
remote system.

All of the 3000/MPE systems I access have a DNS entry configured for their IP
address, All of the 9000/UNIX the same, All of the PC's/DOS/WIN/NT the same, All
of the Jet Direct printers the same.  The only case where I connect to a system
using a NS-NODE-NAME is when I attempt to duplicate a customer problem with
NS-NODE-NAME configurations ~or~ in the rare case where a remote system is not
yet configured in the DNS and then I use the NSDIR NS-NODE-NAME as a backup. I
do not use HOSTS.NET.SYS as a backup due to it's current limitations.  The only
case where I connect to a system with a IP address is with PING where I am
trying to determine if I have a problem with Name to IP resolution or IP
connectivity to the remote system.

OOP's just thought of a reason... Administration of a DNS is a task that
requires some skill and emphasis on customer service.  I have never ever had a
complaint about our Internal HP DNS administration, but I could see where if the
DNS server is not managed correctly and with a service oriented perspective that
it would be difficult to rely on DNS name lookups.

3. Why not just assign permanent addresses to the machines that you would like
to remain that way?  

Unless you are the CEO of your company, their is NO SUCH THING as your very own
permanent IP address.  I can guarantee you some time soon, a plan will be
devised to reorganize the systems and hence the IP address's assigned to your
systems.  Very similar to working at HP, within the first month I was on my
second boss and 3rd desk... they can move me around, assign me to a new group,
but they can not change my name!  Likewise once you have a DNS name for your
system and your programmers start using it in applications and JCL you will find
your network administrators can move your systems and change your IP address at
will, but if they try to change your NODE NAME they will achieve the fear of
death as your programmers march in mass towards their office.  

I hope this helps.

Regards,

James Hofmeister
Hewlett Packard
Worldwide Technology Network Expert Center
P.S. My Ideals are my own, not necessarily my employers.