Ok. Then look at it this way. A DNS server effectively has to look at its own hosts file and publish the results in response to online queries.
Assuming the failure rate of getting answers from a hosts file is constant, why exactly do you think those online requests have a negative failure rate? That’s what would be required for DNS to beat hosts files!
If we’re talking about different networks then the hosts files do not have the same failure rate, and that’s the first time DNS (or something like it) could be better.
> DNS isn't "new" at this point. I remember configuring old SunOS boxes in the 90's, switching them from NIS to DNS. Exciting times.
Confessions from the cargo cult. Oh well. Hopefully the above makes it clear why this was a mistake.
If not, I’m not sure what else to say. In 1996 I was converting sunos boxes at that time back to hosts files and yp because the failure rate of DNS was higher and the previous guy left. What else could I do? If I’d told my boss we needed to keep using DNS because “it works for the Internet” I would’ve gotten laughed at. We had real work to do!
Also, if you can push files with rsync, you can write a script to SSH to every host and check its DNS settings. Pretty simple stuff.
DNS isn't "new" at this point. I remember configuring old SunOS boxes in the 90's, switching them from NIS to DNS. Exciting times.