is there anyway to get a filer to show up in an nfs client with more than 1 host name?
DNS CNAME records, or multiple A records?
The NetBIOS Name Service has always had a mechanism by which clients can register names for an IP address; DNS hasn't always had that, and ONTAP supports NetBIOS Name Service registration, but doesn't support dynamic DNS.
I.e., the NetBIOS names associated with the appliance's address are under the control of the appliance; the same is not true of names obtained through DNS (or NIS), so there's nothing you can do *on the appliance* to support multiple host names for the appliance's IP address, you have to do it on whatever machines supply IP addresses for names (DNS server, NIS server - or client, if you're using a host file).