Conventions for naming nodes

In order to resolve node names, the Qnet protocol follows certain conventions.

node name
A character string that identifies the node you're talking to. This name must be unique in the domain and can't contain slashes or periods.

The default node name is the value of the _CS_HOSTNAME configuration string. If your hostname is localhost (the default when you first boot), Qnet uses a hostname based on your NIC hardware's MAC address, so that nodes can still communicate.

node domain
A character string that lsm-qnet.so adds to the end of the node name. Together, the node name and node domain must form a string that's unique for all nodes that are talking to each other. The default is the value of the _CS_DOMAIN configuration string.
fully qualified node name (FQNN)
The string formed by concatenating the node name and node domain. For example, if the node name is karl and the node domain name is qnx.com, the resulting FQNN is karl.qnx.com.
network directory
A directory in the pathname space implemented by lsm-qnet.so. Each network directory—there can be more than one on a node—has an associated node domain. The default is /net, as used in the examples in this chapter.
Note: The entries in /net for nodes in the same domain as your machine don't include the domain name. For example, if your machine is in the qnx.com domain, the entry for karl is /net/karl; if you're in a different domain, the entry is /net/karl.qnx.com.
name resolution
The process by which lsm-qnet.so converts an FQNN to a list of destination addresses that the transport layer knows how to get to.
name resolver
A piece of code that implements one method of converting an FQNN to a list of destination addresses. Each network directory has a list of name resolvers that are applied in turn to attempt to resolve the FQNN. The default is the Node Discovery Protocol (NDP).