On Wed, 18 Nov 1998, Greg A. Woods wrote:

> [ On Tue, November 17, 1998 at 11:27:12 (+1100), Simon Burge wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: mysql: hostname 
> >
> > As I understand it, technically the domainname is the YP/NIS domainname
> > and the hostname is the DNS hostname.
> 
> Technically you can use the "domainname" stored in the kernel for
> anything you want to use it for (except if your running YP/NIS, I
> guess).
> 
> Logically it would make perfect sense to use that value as the DNS
> domain name when the host uses the DNS, and use it only for YP/NIS if
> you're stuck running such a thing.
> 
> Of course you can use the domainname for both on systems that use both,
> provided that you're also sane enough [;-)] to use the same string for
> both purposes....

What if you can't? I have administered one cluster, and will soon be
helping set up another, where domainname != DNS domain name. Here at
Stanford, all the computers on campus are in the stanford.edu DNS domain.
So we can't set the two the same. :-) (well, one YP cluster per subnet
could, but then the others on the same wire couldn't).

> > The way I usually do things is to set the domainname to the DNS
> > domainname on systems which use NIS/YP (which from a security
> > point-of-view is probably a no-no) and to use FQDN on systems which
> > don't.
> 
> Why deviate?  Why not keep things consistent no matter which environment
> the host runs?

What about hosts which use both?

I guess part of this question stems from the fact that I never understood
why folks would want to get host name resolution via YP. And that's not a
question I expect anyone here to answer. :-) I mean DNS is great for host
name resolution, and yp is fine (*) for keeping user ID's consistent
across hosts, so it seems to me it'd be best to use each for what it's
best at.

But regardless of anyone's thoughts on what I describe above, I really
think we sould not recomend using "domainname" as the DNS domain name. I'm
afraid new folks could get tripped up. "domainname" should always be the
YP domain name (which can be equal to the DNS domain name due to a policy
decision, but it's still the YP domain name).

Take care,

Bill