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Solaris Networking Tips

Changing the System Host Name

The host name of a system is contained in six files on the system. You must modify all of these files to successfully change a system’s host name.

The files that contain the host name of a system are:

1. The /etc/nodename file
2. The /etc/hostname.xxn file
3. The /etc/inet/hosts file
4. The /etc/net/ticlts/hosts file
5. The /etc/net/ticots/hosts file
6. The /etc/net/ticotsord/hosts file

Capturing and Inspecting Network Packets

You can use the snoop utility to capture and inspect network packets to determine what kind of data is transferred between systems. You can use the snoop utility to see what happens when one system uses the ping command to communicate with another system. To view network traffic between two specific systems, perform the command:

# snoop sys41 sys42
sys41 -> sys42 ICMP Echo request
sys42 -> sys41 ICMP Echo reply

Use the -a option to enable audible clicks, which notify you of any network traffic. Although noisy, the clicks are useful when troubleshooting.

The following example shows how to turn on audible clicks for all network traffic related to a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) boot:

# snoop -a dhcp

Some additional snoop options include:

• snoop Summary output
• snoop -v Detailed verbose output
• snoop -V Summary verbose output (negation of -v)
• snoop -o filename Redirects the snoop utility output to filename in summary mode
• snoop -i filename Displays packets that were previously captured in filename
• Note – Press Control-C to stop the snoop utility.

Last modified: February 28, 2008