RHEL 5.1 loses changes to /etc/hosts above lines for `localhost`

Question

Is there a known fix (other than upgrading from 5.1) to fix /etc/hosts from being replaced on reboot?

I discovered this behavior when running HP's Server Automation tools. HPSA sets-up a variety of local aliases for itself to use for different components to communicate wit each other.

However, after reboot, the hosts files is reverted to a quasi-plain-vanilla version: all lines above the entry for localhost are removed. Manually re-adding those needed lines below the entries for localhost works, but is non-ideal.

Is there a fix for this behavior?

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_{^{I do realize that RHEL 5u1 is not officially supported for HPSA 7.8, but the hosts file resetting is not good for a variety of other reasons, too.}}

Answer 1

You have to disable kudzu.

Try first

chkconfig --levels 345 kudzu off

or

chkconfig kudzu --del

Answer 2

My ultimate fix for this was to move to a newer release of RHEL (5.3 or 5.5, depending on the use).