I’m happily using /etc/hosts as my internal / vpn host resolver, as opposed to running a separate dns service for my private ip space. Why? I can’t explain exactly at this point, other than to say its working for me.
Running a separate dns server was a lot more of a hassle than I thought it would be, and since I wrote a simple script to keep /etc/hosts up-to-date, its not bad at all. I tried using ldap for it but it wasn’t fast enough - I continue to store the hostnames in ldap though.
I found this page especially helpful when it comes to setting up /etc/hostname in debian for use with postfix.
Next time you decide to try dns on your local subnet, try dnsmasq. Works very well, is well supported and documented, and is in the Debian repository. I use it on several networks - far easier to cope with than bind.
Hi a9db0 - yeah I love dnsmasq! I use it for caching dnsbl requests for several mail servers. Good stuff.