I have a Red Hat 9 lab with a Windows 2003 AD DNS server. The server ip is in the config on the RH9 clients but they won't do lookups to the server, only to the /etc/hosts file. They can ping the server's ip and connect to shares using //ipaddress/sharename.

What am I missing to get my RH9 clients to force lookups to the server?

Hi,

try the following:

1. Have you tried using nslookup ?
type nslookup at the prompt
#nslookup
> <the domainname being searched>

2. Are the windows clients able to query the DNS server?

3. what is the entry in /etc/nsswitch.conf file?(search for a line starting with hosts: )
dns should be mentioned there

-Subhasis

are your ISPs dns servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf

Subhasis,
1. nslookup yields:
correct domain name

Server: correct ip of dns server1
Address: correct ip of dns server1#53

Name: correct domain name
Address: correct address of dns server1
Name: correct domain name
Address: correct address of dns server2

2. Windows clients make dns queries without any problem.

3. /etc/nsswitch.conf hosts: files nis dns

Note: I have nis configured and working against a RH9 NIS server, also.

scuzzman,
This is an internal, isolated network.