Testing The Configuration - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

every access to names or groups. hosts is not cached by default, because the mecha-
nism in nscd to cache hosts makes the local system unable to trust forward and reverse
lookup checks. Instead of asking nscd to cache names, set up a caching DNS server.
If the caching for passwd is activated, it usually takes about fifteen seconds until a
newly added local user is recognized. Reduce this waiting time by restarting nscd with
the command rcnscd restart.
/etc/HOSTNAME
This contains the hostname without the domain name attached. This file is read by
several scripts while the machine is booting. It must contain only one line (in which
the hostname is set).

17.6.2 Testing the Configuration

Before you write your configuration to the configuration files, you can test it. To set
up a test configuration, use the ip command. To test the connection, use the ping
command. Older configuration tools, ifconfig and route, are also available.
The commands ip, ifconfig and route change the network configuration directly
without saving it in the configuration file. Unless you enter your configuration in the
correct configuration files, the changed network configuration is lost on reboot.
Configuring a Network Interface with ip
ip is a tool to show and configure routing, network devices, policy routing and tunnels.
It was designed as a replacement for the older tools ifconfig and route.
ip is a very complex tool. Its common syntax is ip options object command.
You can work with the following objects:
link
This object represents a network device.
address
This object represents the IP address of device.
Basic Networking 249