IT From All Angles

In Solaris 11, alot of configurations are being moved from configuration files into the Service Management Framework.  Here we will discuss this change around the DNS client.

View Existing DNS Client Configuration

# svccfg -s network/dns/client listprop config
config                      application
config/value_authorization astring     solaris.smf.value.name-service.dns.client
config/domain              astring     test.local
config/nameserver          net_address 10.0.0.152

Update Existing DNS Client Configuration

Here we will update our name servers.  In this case we are replacing the original with two different addresses.

# svccfg -s network/dns/client setprop config/nameserver = net_address: "(10.0.0.141 10.0.0.142)"

Here we are changing the domain to b.test.local.

# svccfg -s network/dns/client setprop config/domain = astring: b.test.local

And we are defining a previously undefined setting for the search domains, we are including test.local and b.test.local.

# svccfg -s network/dns/client setprop config/search = astring: '("test.local" "b.test.local")'

Here we are defining our name resolution order.

# svccfg -s name-service/switch setprop config/ipnodes = astring: '("files dns")'
# svccfg -s name-service/switch setprop config/host = astring: '("files dns")'

Review Changed DNS Client Configuration

# svccfg -s network/dns/client listprop config
config                      application
config/value_authorization astring     solaris.smf.value.name-service.dns.client
config/domain              astring     b.test.local
config/nameserver          net_address 10.0.0.141 10.0.0.142
config/search              astring     "test.local" "b.test.local"

Review Changed Name Service Configuration

# svccfg -s name-service/switch listprop config
config                      application
config/default             astring     files
config/value_authorization astring     solaris.smf.value.name-service.switch
config/printer             astring     "user files"
config/ipnodes             astring     "files dns"
config/host                astring     "files dns"

Export DNS Client Configuration

This command will build an /etc/resolv.conf based on your settings above.

# svcadm enable dns/client
# nscfg export svc:/network/dns/client:default

# cat /etc/resolv.conf

#
# Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
#

#
# _AUTOGENERATED_FROM_SMF_V1_
#
# WARNING: THIS FILE GENERATED FROM SMF DATA.
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.  EDITS WILL BE LOST.
# See resolv.conf(4) for details.

domain  b.test.local
search  test.local b.test.local
nameserver  10.0.0.141
nameserver  10.0.0.142

If you manually edit the /etc/resolv.conf then your changes will be lost on a restart of the network/dns/client service or a reboot, as the warning says.

Export Name Service Configurations

# svcadm refresh name-service/switch

# cat /etc/nsswitch.conf

#
# _AUTOGENERATED_FROM_SMF_V1_
#
# WARNING: THIS FILE GENERATED FROM SMF DATA.
#   DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.  EDITS WILL BE LOST.
# See nsswitch.conf(4) for details.

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

An Extra Trick

Now if you can’t be bothered to do things the new way they also put in an import mechanism, whereby you can take advantage of your existing knowledge and simply import your modified configuration files into the SMF to manage them going forward.

So modify up your /etc/resolv.conf and your /etc/nsswitch.conf and then import them with nscfg.

# nscfg import -f name-service/switch:default
# nscfg import -f dns/client:default

UPDATE
December 30, 2012

I have modifed my commands above to account for the mistakes that noxxsan and Mikel brought forth in the comments.  Sorry for the delay.  I additionally added the import trick.