HP-UX IPv6 Transport Administrator's Guide for TOUR 1.0

IPv6 Software and Interface Technology
Name and Address Lookup for IPv6
Chapter 766
Name and Address Lookup for IPv6
It is generally recommended to add IPv6 addresses (known as AAAA
records) to a DNS Name Server only when the following conditions are
true:
• The IPv6 address is assigned to the interface on the node.
• The address is configured on the interface.
• The interface is on a link which connects to the IPv6 infrastructure.
HP recommends beginning with IPv6 addresses and host names in the
/etc/hosts file on a development network; then adding IPv6 addresses
and hosts to a Domain Name Service when moving IPv6 to a production
backbone network.
/etc/nsswitch.conf (nsswitch.conf(4)) is a configuration file for the
name service switch. A new entity, ipnodes, specifies which name
services resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and host names on HP-UX 11i
IPv6 bundled as part of TOUR 1.0.
More specifically, on HP-UX 11i IPv6 bundled as part of TOUR 1.0, the
new keyword ipnodes specifies the resolver policy for the new library
functions getnameinfo(3N), getaddrinfo(3N), getipnodebyname(3N)
and getipnodebyaddr(3N) for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. The
existing keyword hosts specifies the resolver policy for the library
functions gethostbyname() and gethostbyaddr() for IPv4 addresses.
NOTE Internet Services applications (such as telnet, r* commands, etc.) use
these new library functions to resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
By default, the /etc/nsswitch.conf is not on a system. The default
ipnodes policy (same as default hosts policy) is as follows:
dns [NOTFOUND=return] files
This policy implies that dns is the authoritative resolver and will only
try files if dns is down. If dns is available but returns NOTFOUND, the
search stops.