DNS name resolution is problematic with glibc version 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 when "options rotate" is used

Issue

• resolving is not working since version 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 of the glibc.
• getattrinfo returns error where it should not. The solution is to remove "options rotate" in resolv.conf or to run NSCD.

• Since updating glibc to glibc-2.12-1.80.el6_3.3.x86_64 on some servers we have had problems with name resolution. All servers use IPv4 only.

  • The first indication of the problem was cfengine mailing about failures.

  cf bhost: Couldn't look up address v6 for : Temporary failure in name resolution
  cf bhost: Id-authentication for bhost.bar.baz failed
  

  • yum can't resolve any repos, neither local nor from RHN:

  Loaded plugins: rhnplugin
  There was an error communicating with RHN.
  RHN channel support will be disabled.
  Error communicating with server. The message was:
  Unable to connect to the host and port specified
  http://foo.bar.baz/dists/XYZ/6Server/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] PYCURL ERROR 6 - "Couldn't resolve host 'foo.bar.baz'"
  Trying other mirror.
  Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: XYZ. Please verify its path and try again
  

  • satellite-sync failing with following error message.

16:24:57 Red Hat Network Satellite - live synchronization
16:24:57    url: https://satellite.rhn.redhat.com
16:24:57    debug/output level: 6
16:24:57    +++ Satellite synchronization tool checking in.
16:24:57    +++ Entitled satellite validated.
16:24:57    db:  rhnsat/<password>@rhnsat
16:24:57 Action list/commandline toggles: ['channels', 'list-channels', 'channel-families']
16:24:57 
16:24:57 Retrieving / parsing channel-families data
16:24:57 ERROR: server.dump.channel_families('<the systemid>',): Unable to connect to the host and port specified
+++ sending log as an email +++

SYNC ERROR:

(Check logs/email for potentially more detail)

RhnSyncException("ERROR: server.dump.channel_families('<the systemid>',): Unable to connect to the host and port specified",)