[TriLUG] On the Application of Search Domains

[Brian via TriLUG]

Hi Gang,

Recently my employer set up a new server for my team.  I asked for, and 
they provided, DNS records similar to the following (names have been 
changed to protect the guilty):

*.metroid.noa.lan.   3600    IN      CNAME   metroid.noa.lan.
metroid.noa.lan.     900     IN      A       aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd

Our default search domain is, naturally, "noa.lan".  Unfortunately for 
my needs, search domain doesn't seem to get used if any dots are in the 
hostname.  e.g.:

metroid -> resolves to aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
samus.metroid -> NXDOMAIN

I was hoping not to require our users to fully-qualify hostnames and be 
able to get away with the samus.metroid style.  Is that a pipe dream or 
can I ask our IT people to do something to the DNS server so that those 
resolve?  Or is that stupid?

Thanks,
-Brian