No root cause but found work around. Even though hosts to be added are fully in /etc/hosts and able to resolve and ssh passwordless login is fine... [root@thor ~]# ping odin PING odin.penguinpages.local (172.16.100.102) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from odin.penguinpages.local (172.16.100.102): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.085 ms ^C --- odin.penguinpages.local ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.085/0.085/0.085/0.000 ms [root@thor ~]# ping odin.penguinpages.local PING odin.penguinpages.local (172.16.100.102) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from odin.penguinpages.local (172.16.100.102): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.083 ms ^C --- odin.penguinpages.local ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.083/0.083/0.083/0.000 ms change target system to IP address allows host to be added Hmm.. my guess is something is hard coded to IP and not right here.. I will post if I find more.