Private zone and BIND search order

[Barry Margolin]

In article <9t0kpj$sp1 at pub3.rc.vix.com>, Serge <sly at sly.com> wrote:
>Let's take 2 oracle server with their ip address and a zone "oracle-server":
>
>sbc.002.us   172.1.1.1  (this one work correctly)
>sbc.001.gr   172.2.2.2  (this is the one I have problem with)
>
>So when the client is configured with no searchlist:
>
>ping sbc.002.us   -> no resolution
>ping sbc.002.us.oracle-server   -> correct ip: 172.1.1.1
>ping sbc.001.gr   -> bad ip: 208.185.127.162
>ping sbc.001.gr.oracle-server   -> correct ip: 172.2.2.2
>
>If the client is configured with a searchlist (oracle-server):
>
>ping sbc.002.us   -> correct ip: 172.1.1.1
>ping sbc.002.us.oracle-server   -> correct ip: 172.1.1.1
>ping sbc.001.gr   -> bad ip: 208.185.127.162
>ping sbc.001.gr.oracle-server   -> correct ip: 172.2.2.2
>
>And if I want to connect to a database using SQL*Plus, I must use only the
>host name because this is how the listener is configure. If I add the zone
>name to the host name, I can't connect via sql*plus.

The problem in this scenario is that a name that has dots in it is assumed
to be fully qualified, so the resolver won't append anything in the
searchlist unless the original lookup fails.

The algorithm is:

1. Does name have any dots?
 Yes:
   A. Look up name as given.
   B. If that fails, append each search domain and look it up.
 No:
   A. Append each search domain and look it up.
   B. If all those fail, look up name as given.

If you need to use hostnames like that, you'll have to fix the application
so that it looks the names up with the .oracle-server suffix appended
explicitly; you shouldn't depend on the resolver to append it for you.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
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