10.6 When a Domain Name
Server is Unreachable
10.6 When a Domain Name
Server is Unreachable
The /etc/netsvc.conf file is used to specify the ordering of certain services in AIX, specifically, name resolution for sendmail, the gethostbyname, gethostaddr, and gethostent subroutines, in addition to alias resolution for sendmail.
AIX offers several services for resolving host names and aliases. The gethostbyname, gethostbyaddr, and gethostent subroutines use the services for resolving names. A default is set to determine the order in which these services are tried for resolving host names and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
The default order for resolving host names is:
This default order can be overwritten by creating the configuration file, /etc/netsvc.conf, and specifying the desired ordering. The environment variable NSORDER overrides the host settings in the /etc/netsvc.conf file.
If a particular machine in a subnet cannot resolve a hostname correctly, the default order may have been altered by the presence of the /etc/netsvc.conf file.
10.8 The NSORDER
Environment Variable