Only the device with an IP address is tested. The 0.0.0.0 entries are so that you can show the tests on other web pages in xymon. I do this on over 100 devices so the 0.0.0.0 entries should not be causing the problem.
This is not correct.
This listed in the bb-hosts file:
0.0.0.0 cswflex4.csw.L-3com.com 128.170.31.14 cswflex4.csw.L-3com.com # conn 0.0.0.0 cswflex4.csw.l-3com.com 0.0.0.0 cswflex4.csw.l-3com.com
Will result in that host being ping tested 4 times.
0.0.0.0 means do a DNS lookup for the IP address, then ping test it.
I think your IP "128.170.31.14" will be ignored as well, DNS will be used first, but test that theory yourself.
What you want is to add the "noping" option at the end of 3 of these entries, and add a "prefer" option to the line you want xymon to work with.
You also need to check your DNS entries for hosts, 382 lookup failures sounds like something to investigate.
If you have around 100 unique hostnames in your bb-hosts file, this stat shows that you have around 1002 total lines. DNS lookups for all ;)
DNS statistics:
hostnames resolved : 975
succesful : 573
failed : 382
calls to dnsresolve : 1002
Craig