Slow Remote Login on OpenSolaris

Issue

A delay is encountered when connecting to an OpenSolaris or Solaris 11 host via SSH before the login screen is presented.

Cause

mdns is configured as a server lookup mechanism in:

/etc/nsswitch.conf

Resolution

  1. Remove msdns from nsswitch.conf
  2. Enable svc:/network/dns/multicast:default

    svcadm enable svc:/network/dns/multicast:default