If you are using the NIS or DNS name services, or the LDAP directory service, then the host information is stored in a database, such as hosts.byname, that exists on a server.
If you use local files for the naming service, the hosts database is maintained in the /etc/inet/hosts file. The host names for zone network interfaces are resolved from the local hosts database in /etc/inet/hosts. Alternatively, for shared-IP zones, the IP address itself can be specified directly when configuring a zone so that no host name resolution is required. See the hosts(4) and nodename(4) man pages for more information. Also see Chapter 3, Configuring and Administering IP Interfaces and Addresses in Oracle Solaris, in Configuring and Administering Network Components in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .