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Name Resolution: Make the App Reach Its Backends by Name

MediumNetworking15-25 min
The brief

myapp reaches three backends by name — db.internal, cache.internal, queue.internal — but name resolution for them is broken: one is pinned to the wrong address and two don't resolve at all. This host resolves those names from /etc/hosts; fix it so each name resolves to the address the network team published (see /root/brief.txt), and verify with getent hosts <name> — the same path the app's resolver uses.

Two traps: /etc/myapp/backends.conf mentions an old cache address — it's stale, use the authoritative value. And fix the wrong db.internal entry in place — an appended second line won't help, because the resolver returns the first match.

What you'll do
  • Recognize a name-resolution failure and work the resolution layer (/etc/hosts, getent)
  • Fix a wrong host entry in place and add missing ones
  • Use the authoritative source over a stale value cached in config

Hands-on lab: you work on a real Linux box in your browser, graded on the machine's actual state.