# Resolving hostnames locally

## Purpose:

Resolving hostnames locally enables you to display hostnames in the log files for frequently used hosts, without having to rely on a DNS server. The known IP address - hostname pairs are stored locally in a file. In the log messages, AxoSyslog will replace the IP addresses of known hosts with their hostnames. To configure local name resolution, complete the following steps:

## Steps:

  1. Add the hostnames and the respective IP addresses to the file used for local name resolution. On Linux and UNIX systems, this is the `/etc/hosts` file. Consult the documentation of your operating system for details.

  2. Instruct AxoSyslog to resolve hostnames locally. Set the `use-dns()` option to `persist_only`.

  3. Set the `dns-cache-hosts()` option to point to the file storing the hostnames.
```
 options {
                 use-dns(persist_only);
                 dns-cache-hosts(/etc/hosts);
             };
         
```




Last modified July 2, 2023: [Change highlight mode of code examples (2f8a959)](<https://github.com/axoflow/axosyslog-core-docs/commit/2f8a95937c6498193e7168ce8b0dc831e9f0f8ad>)