Troubleshooting

DNS Resolver

DNS Resolver

The Domain Name System (DNS) resolver is designed for use in local network domains where it enables use of a host name or fully qualified domain name with DNS-compatible switch CLI commands.

DNS operation supports both IPv4 and IPv6 DNS resolution and multiple, prioritized DNS servers. (For information on IPv6 DNS resolution, refer to the latest IPv6 Configuration Guide for your switch.)

Terminology

Domain Suffix — Includes all labels to the right of the unique host name in a fully qualified domain name assigned to an IP address. For example, in the fully qualified domain name “device53.evergreen.trees.org”, the domain suffix is “evergreen.trees.org”, while “device53” is the unique (host) name assigned to a specific IP address.

Fully Qualified Domain Name — The sequence of labels in a domain name identifying a specific host (host name) and the domain in which it exists. For example, if a device with an IP address of 10.10.10.101 has a host name of device53 and resides in the evergreen.trees.org domain, then the device’s fully qualified domain name is device53.evergreen.trees.org and the DNS resolution of this name is 10.10.10.101.

Host Name — The unique, leftmost label in a domain name assigned to a specific IP address in a DNS server configuration. This enables the server to distinguish a device using that IP address from other devices in the same domain. For example, in the evergreen.trees.org domain, if an IPv4 address of 10.10.100.27 is assigned a host name of accounts015 and another IP address of 10.10.100.33 is assigned a host name of sales021, then the switch configured with the domain suffix evergreen.trees.org and a DNS server that resolves addresses in that domain can use the host names to reach the devices with DNS-compatible commands. For example:

ping accounts015 traceroute accounts015

Basic Operation

When the switch is configured with only the IP address of a DNS server available to the switch, then a DNS-compatible command, executed with a fully qualified domain name, can reach a device found in any domain accessible through the configured DNS server.

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