OSX 10.8.2 does not use Search Domain

Solution 1:

I solved using a script to add the domain suffix via scutil, open a terminal and run:

scutil    
open
get State:/Network/Service/yourvpnconnection/DNS
d.add DomainName mydomain.local
set State:/Network/Service/yourvpnconnection/DNS

It seems that the DNS suffix configuration does not apply to dynamically created VPN connections, like the forticlient SSL VPN client creates. So this script configures the search domain options for the dynamically created connection.

Solution 2:

The .local "TLD" is reserved for use with mDNS ("Bonjour" in Apple-land), I can only assume this is the cause for these problems. (Names ending in .local can be expected to be resolved in mDNS rather than DNS.)

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local#Multicast_DNS_standard and https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6762#section-3