I have two AIX boxes running on a small subnet without a DNS.

One is AIX 4.2 and the other AIX 5.2, and they are both set up
with /etc/host files.

I use a PC based X-windows server software to connect to them
to run a database application. This PC based software connects
to the AIX boxes via "rexec".

On the 5.2 box in my /etc/inetd.conf file, my entry for rexecd is called
with the -c flag which disables reverse name resolution. This means that
I can connect to the system from a PC which is not in my /etc/hosts file.

However on my 4.2 box, rexecd does not have this option and there
must be and entry in /etc/hosts for every PC which needs to connect
to the AIX 4.2 box.

In the future both boxes will be configured to use the main DNS, and the
AIX 4.2 box will be upgraded to 4.3.3, the highest revision it's hardware
is compatible with.

In the meantime I am left with manually entering every PC which needs to
connect to the AIX 4.2 box into it's /etc/hosts/, which is both tedious and
time consuming.

Is there anyway around this? And replacing the PC X-Windows software
is not within my budget.

Suggestions anyone?

Tom.

Tom Brehony wrote:
> I have two AIX boxes running on a small subnet without a DNS.
>
> One is AIX 4.2 and the other AIX 5.2, and they are both set up
> with /etc/host files.
>
> I use a PC based X-windows server software to connect to them
> to run a database application. This PC based software connects
> to the AIX boxes via "rexec".
>
> On the 5.2 box in my /etc/inetd.conf file, my entry for rexecd is called
> with the -c flag which disables reverse name resolution. This means that
> I can connect to the system from a PC which is not in my /etc/hosts file.
>
> However on my 4.2 box, rexecd does not have this option and there
> must be and entry in /etc/hosts for every PC which needs to connect
> to the AIX 4.2 box.
>
> In the future both boxes will be configured to use the main DNS, and the
> AIX 4.2 box will be upgraded to 4.3.3, the highest revision it's hardware
> is compatible with.
>
> In the meantime I am left with manually entering every PC which needs to
> connect to the AIX 4.2 box into it's /etc/hosts/, which is both tedious and
> time consuming.
>
> Is there anyway around this? And replacing the PC X-Windows software
> is not within my budget.
>
> Suggestions anyone?
>
> Tom.
>
>

Make the 4.2 box a slave DNS server off the main DNS. This seems less cumbersome
than some scheme of generating and copying host files.

-- Jason

"Tom Brehony" <tombrehony.spamno@eircom.nospamno.net> wrote in
news:37e2meF5ag23nU1@individual.net:
> In the meantime I am left with manually entering every PC which needs
> to connect to the AIX 4.2 box into it's /etc/hosts/, which is both
> tedious and time consuming.
>
> Is there anyway around this?
Yes, the DNS should return a name for every DNS address that can be used.

It's quite common to have names like dhcp-x-y-z-w.domain.tld for every
x.y.z.w address that can be served via DHCP. The DNS maps can easily be
built via a small script.

> And replacing the PC X-Windows software
> is not within my budget.
Free X11 at www.cygwin.org. Within everybody's budget, and quite good for
the price :-) .


--
Doing AIX support was the most monty-pythonesque
activity available at the time.
Eagerly awaiting my thin chocolat mint.