1.2 Network Setup

Files for network configuration are located in /etc . If some or all of these files do not exist, they must be created.

You will need the following values for the network setup. Example given in parentheses:

IP address of machine (10.20.30.10)

Name of machine (mach)

Domain of network (realfast.com)

Gateway IP (10.20.30.1)

Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0)

Domain Name Server DNS (10.20.2.100, 10.20.2.101)

Search Suffixes (realfast.com, muchfaster.com, realslow.com)

1.2.1 /etc/hostname.interface

interface is the ethernet device name of the network card: Sun Ultra: hme0, hme1, .. (= Happy Meal), Sun Blade: eri, x86 machines (e.g.): elxl0, elxl1, .. These device names can be found under /dev . Digits following these names refer to different physical boards, e.g. hme0 is the on-board ethernet, while hme1 may be an add-on card.

This file contains either the host name or the IP address for the network interface:

/etc/hostname.hme0

10.20.30.10

For any additional network interfaces, a separate hostname file must be created with its own unique IP address, e.g. /etc/hostname.hme1

1.2.2 /etc/nodename

This file contains the name of this machine, wihch also shows up on the login page:

mach

1.2.3 /etc/defaultdomain

This file contains the domain name for this machine:

realfast.com

1.2.4 /etc/defaultrouter

This file contains the Gateway IP:

10.20.30.1

1.2.5 /etc/hosts

This file contains the Internet host table, which associates IP addresses, machine and domain names:

127.0.0.1      localhost
10.20.30.10    mach.realfast.com  mach
10.20.30.10    mach.realfast.com  loghost
The first line is used to establish a link from this machine back to itself (loopback).

The second line allows the machine name mach to be used instead of the full name mach.realfast.com.

The third line is required for logging purposes. Some processes require access to the machine named loghost, which in the case of this setup is this very machine.

For any additional IP address that this machine uses, for example on a second ethernet controller, appropriate entries must be made in this file, specifically the second line.

Other IP addresses and names not used by this machine can be made in the hosts file for quick (or forced) name resolving, e.g.:

216.239.41.99  www.google.com    google

1.2.6 /etc/netmasks

This file contains the netmask:

10.20.30.0    255.255.255.0

1.2.7 /etc/resolv.conf

This file contains Name Server information and Search paths for host resolving:

domain realfast.com
search muchfaster.com realslow.com
nameserver 10.20.2.100
nameserver 10.20.2.101

/etc/nsswitch.conf:

This file specifies the order in which lookups for hostnames, files, usernames, passwords, etc. are performed. On a stand-alone machine, these lookups are restricted to local files and dns, whereas in a NIS network of computers, the lookup is performed in nis and files.

For local files only:

passwd:    files
group:      files
hosts:      files dns
ipnodes:    files
networks:  files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
ethers:    files
netmasks:  files
bootparams: files
publickey:  files
netgroup:  files
automount:  files
aliases:    files
services:  files
sendmailvars:  files
printers:      user files
auth_attr:  files
prof_attr:  files
project:    files

For a first-time network set-up, only the third line (hosts) needs to be changed to reflect that hostnames are looked up first in files (/etc/hosts) and then using DNS.