I think perhaps you mean: 
next unless $hfileline =~/^\S*\s+$hNames/;

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You want to match a "hosts" line where you have an IP (\S*) followed by whitespace (\s+) followed by the hostname. Perhaps a better regex would be: 
next unless $hfileline =~/^[\d.]+\s+$hNames/;

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To force matches against real lines, and not match against commented-out entries. Another way to match an IP address without using "<= 255" is: 
if( $vmServerIP =~ m/^(?:(?:\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2(?:[0-4]\d|5[0-5]))\.){3
+}(?:\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2(?:[0-4]\d|5[0-5]))/ ){

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In reply to Re: regular expression assistance by markkawika
in thread regular expression assistance by notasaint

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