Description of problem:
This is actually with rsh-server, but I didn't see it as one of the choices.

rsh-server when used with /etc/hosts.equiv will perfom many unecessary host
lookups which causes significant delays in large environments, the scenario is
as follows:

In this environment there are many hosts listed in hosts.equiv, those hostnames
are resolvable through /etc/hosts distributed by NIS. Hosts in nsswitch.conf is
configured to use files, then nis, then DNS. What happens is that every entry in
hosts.equiv, we get a resolution attempt through /etc/hosts, DNS, NIS seemingly
at the same time. This can cause login attempts to take sometimes minutes to
complete. It seems that we should only be getting resolution attempts for the
client host name to see if it matches an entry in hosts.equiv. I suspect there
might also be a resolver library bug of some sort as well.

This problem DOES NOT occur when .rhosts files are in use.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

RH 6.2
glibc-devel-2.1.3-15
rsh-server-0.16-12

RH7.0
glibc-devel-2.1.92-14
rsh-server-0.17-2.2

RH7.1
glibc-devel-2.2.4-19
rsh-server-0.17-2.5

RH7.2
glibc-devel-2.2.4-24
rsh-server-0.17-5


How reproducible:

Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. see description
2.
3.
    
Actual results:

Logins work as expected but many, many unneeded lookups occur. The lookups can
be verified with either a packet analyzer on the network or strace'ing the rshd
process.

Expected results:

Logins should work and unnecessary host lookups should not be performed.

Additional info:

Unfortunately, 'scrap rsh/rlogin & NIS for hostnames and use ssh and DNS
instead' is not an acceptable answer in this environment. Joshua Jensen and Tim
Kramer (both at Red Hat) can provide more information if needed. See also IT#
10403. See also the attached strace.