HP-UX IPv6 Transport Administrator's Guide (September 2004)

IPv6 Software and Interface Technology
Name and Address Lookup for IPv6
Chapter 660
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. The ipnodes entity specifies which name services
resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and host names.
More specifically, the keyword ipnodes specifies the resolver policy for
the 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 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.
Thus, if DNS has not been set up as the definitive source, and files
(/etc/hosts) may need to be used for address and host name resolution,
HP recommends adding the following entry to /etc/nsswitch.conf: