#
# Internet host table
#
::1     localhost       
127.0.0.1       localhost       
XX.XX.XX.XX     myserver        loghost

What is the purpose of loghost? If it was not for having loghost in there, all the /etc/hosts files on all the servers in this particular network could be identical.

Edit: I looked at /etc/syslog.conf

#ident  "@(#)syslog.conf        1.5     98/12/14 SMI"   /* SunOS 5.0 */
#
# Copyright (c) 1991-1998 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
# All rights reserved.
#
# syslog configuration file.
#
# This file is processed by m4 so be careful to quote (`') names
# that match m4 reserved words.  Also, within ifdef's, arguments
# containing commas must be quoted.
#
*.err;kern.notice;auth.notice                   /dev/sysmsg
*.err;kern.debug;daemon.notice;mail.crit        /var/adm/messages

*.alert;kern.err;daemon.err                     operator
*.alert                                         root

*.emerg                                         *

# if a non-loghost machine chooses to have authentication messages
# sent to the loghost machine, un-comment out the following line:
#auth.notice                    ifdef(`LOGHOST', /var/log/authlog, @loghost)

mail.debug                      ifdef(`LOGHOST', /var/log/syslog, @loghost)

#
# non-loghost machines will use the following lines to cause "user"
# log messages to be logged locally.
#
ifdef(`LOGHOST', ,
user.err                                        /dev/sysmsg
user.err                                        /var/adm/messages
user.alert                                      `root, operator'
user.emerg                                      *
)

Very interesting. when shutting down,, alerts go to all users probably through *.emerg *

Looking at ifdef, it seems that the first parameter checks to see if current machine is a loghost, second parameter is what to do if it is and third parameter is what to do if it is not.

Edit: If you want to test a logging rule you can use svcadm restart system-log to restart the logging service and then logger -p notice "test" to send a test log message where notice can be replaced with any type such as user.err, auth.notice, etc.