Editing Solaris 10 System Administration Part I (section)

=== Configure IPv4 interfaces at boot time ===

files & services that impact IP interfaces:
* svc:/network/physical:default service
* /etc/hostname.xxn file
* /etc/inet/hosts
* /etc/inet/ipnodes

==== svc:/network/physical:default service ====

* service calls /lib/svc/method/net-physical method script, a startup script
* script uses ifconfig utility to configure each interface with IP information
* script searches for files called hostname.xxn in the /etc directory where xx is an interface type and n is the instance of the interface
* each .xxn file found the script uses ifconfig command with plumb option to make the kernel ready to talk to this type of interface
* script then configures the named interface using other options to the ifconfig command

==== /etc/hostname.xxn file ====

* file contains information that configures named interface

<table style="text-align: left; width: 50%;" border="1"
 cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
     <td>Entry</td>
     <td>Interface</td>
</tr>
<tr>
     <td>e1000g0</td>
     <td>First e1000g (Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit family device driver) Ethernet interface in the system</td>
</tr>
<tr>
     <td>bge0</td>
     <td>First bge (Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet device driver) Ethernet interface in the system</td>
</tr>
<tr>
     <td>qfe0</td>
     <td>First qfe (Quad Fast-Ethernet device driver) Ethernet interface in system</td>
</tr>
<tr>
     <td>nge0</td>
     <td>First nge (Nvidia Gigabit Ethernet driver) Ethernet interface in the system</td>
</tr>
</table>

* The /etc/hostname.bge0 file contains host name or IP address of system that contains the bge0 interface.
* the host name contained in the file must exist in the /etc/inet/hosts file so that it can be resolved to an IP address at boot time
* You can edit /etc/hostname.bge0 file to contain either host name or IP address from /etc/inet/hosts file

'''NOTE In this example the Solaris machine uses DHCP without defined host so host is unknown.'''
<pre>root@unknown # ls -l /etc/hostname.bge0
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           1 May 17 10:30 /etc/hostname.bge0
root@unknown # cat /etc/hostname.bge0   

root@unknown # more /etc/inet/hosts
#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1       localhost       loghost
192.168.1.10     unknown # Added by DHCP
root@unknown # ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 
bge0: flags=1004843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
        inet 192.168.1.10 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        ether 0:14:4f:47:bf:9e 
root@unknown #</pre>

==== /etc/inet/hosts ====

* a file that associates the IP addresses of hosts with their names
* you can use file with, or instead of, other hosts databases, including DNS, NIS hosts map, & the NIS+ hosts table
* programs use library interfaces to access info in the file
* file contains at least the loopback & host info
* format for each line: [IP Address] [host name] [aliases/nicknames - optional field]

==== /etc/ipnodes file ====

* symbolic link to /etc/inet/hosts file
* associates names of nodes with IP addresses
* can be used in conjunction with, instead of, other ipnodes databases, including DNS, NIS ipnodes map, & LDAP
* IP addresses can be defined in ipnodes or hosts file
* ipnodes file is searched first then hosts file