Network Management

Adding static entry for hosts that are not resolving by DNS on the SolarWinds Platform

This article is a how to add a static entry on SolarWinds Platform servers to resolve an IP Address via DNS allowing the SolarWinds Platform to display the hostname.

First published date

10/27/2018 2:29 AM

Last published date

5/8/2026 2:20 AM

Overview

When the SolarWinds Platform cannot resolve an IP via DNS, you can add a static entry to the host table to allow the application to display the hostname. This can affect any process that requires host resolution, such as editing or adding nodes.

There are logs like this from C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\Logs\Orion\OrionWeb.log:

ERROR Orion_Nodes_Add_Default - (null)  System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[SolarWinds.Orion.Core.Common.CoreFaultContract]: 
ProvideFault failed, check fault information. (Fault Detail is equal to SolarWinds.Orion.Core.Common.CoreFaultContract(Unknown): 
SolarWinds.Orion.Core.Common.ResolveHostAddressException: Can not resolve IP address for host (hostname).
ERROR Orion_Nodes_Add_Default - (null)  IP address for host (hostname) is missing

Product section

Orion Platform

Cause

Failure to resolve hostname.

Resolution

  1. Go to Start > run Notepad.
  2. Right click on the Notepad icon and select Run as a administrator.
  3. Select Open from the File menu option.
  4. Select All Files (*.*) from the file type drop-down.
  5. Browse to c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
  6. Open the hosts file.
  7. Add the host name and IP address to the bottom of the host file. The comments in this file show how to format this entry.

    For example:
    8.8.8.8 hostname   (Most common syntax)
    or
    8.8.8.8    fqdn   hostname
    (Commonly used, when is required to access and external site fqdn, that is different to the internal site, and where DNS is is not available).

  8. Save the host file.