DNS (named) quirks/features/bugs on Solaris 2.6

[Lee Clemmer]

Hello all.
I encountered an unusual symptom when we moved the primary master DNS server
to Solaris 2.6. We have/had an *ancient* AIX box running internal DNS. (I
apologize for not having exact version numbers for everything at the moment,
but during the first rush of troubleshooting that wasn't relevant) I know it
was bind 4.x because of the file contents.
The symptom: when the new (solaris 2.6) box is on line, queries from clients
(Win95) for unqualified hostnames, e.g. "ping server" fail. If they try
"ping server.domain.com" or "ping 123.0.0.23" they are successful. What's
odd about this is that if the Solaris box is swapped with the AIX box, "ping
server" then graciously returns "reply from server.domain.com..."
My first response to the manager and my co workers was: "This is a client
configuration issue, either they're missing the domain suffix "domain.com"
in their IP configuration, or from the "suffix search order" options, etc.
The clients obtain this config information from DHCP, and it *seems* to be
there. This begs the question, however, of why it worked with the AIX box!
Changing all the client configurations is not an easy option as there are
*hundreds* of clients all across the country. I'm going to tweak the DHCP
options to add a suffix search field, that may fix it, but it won't take
effect until they renew their DHCP lease!

I know the configuation, zone files, etc. are OK, because:
    1. if you manually enter the "domain.com" suffix in the appropriate
location on the client, it works.
    2. nslookup queries *do* work properly, as do resolver requests on the
sun box!! ex.:
            nslookup...server server.domain.com...set type=any...fubar
            response: fubar.domain.com        internet address = 123.0.0.10
....etc.
    3. The 2 things that "DNS and BIND" suggested to try, hostname (change
from "hostname server" to "hostname server.domain.com") and
verifying/correcting contents of resolv.conf, made no difference.

If anyone has seen this, or can offer any help,
thanks,

Lee