If set to IP_address, the time the driver waits for connections to be established is faster. The disadvantage is that if the server designated by that IP address is unavailable, the connection fails and the driver does not attempt to fail over to another IP address.
If set to alias, the time the driver waits for connections to be established is slower because the driver must search a local hosts file to resolve the alias to an IP address. The advantage is that the driver fails over the connection to an alternate IP address if the first address fails.
To use aliases, a local hosts file that maps aliases to IP addresses is required. Aliases cannot be more than eight characters. In the hosts file, you must specify the aliases and map each of them to an IP address in the order that you want the driver to attempt the connections. For example:
where NCR5100 is an alias and COPn (where n = 1, 2, 3, ..., 128) is a suffix that sets the order of failover connection attempts. The eight-character limit on the alias does not include the suffix. You can enter a maximum of 128 COP (communications processor) entries per host.
Notes
Although you must add a COP suffix to the alias in the hosts file, do not specify the suffix when entering the alias in the DBCName or Alias field of the Setup dialog box. Only specify the alias.
Although you must add a COP suffix to the alias in the hosts file, do not specify the suffix when entering the alias in the DBCName or Alias field of the Setup dialog box. Only specify the alias.