bind-8.2.2-P5 hangs on defunct named-xfer

[Mark.Andrews at iengines.com]

> 
> Hi,
> 
> We are running bind-8.2.2-P5 with the nc_ctl.c patch on a redhat 6.1 i386
> box. About once a day I get a zombie named-xfer, marked as <defunct> in
> the ps listing. 
> 
> When this happens named stops answering requests. It remains bound to it's
> listen port, so that clients believe it is working ok. This means that the
> fallback to the next nameserver, stated in resolv.conf, never happens.

	We have had no reports of named not reaping its children with
	the current release.  Failing to reap a child should not cause
	the problems you are describing.  Also named not answering will
	not prevent the resolver from falling over to the next nameserver.

	Firstly please confirm that you are running BIND 8.2.2-P5, use
	ndc status.

	Second can you please get a system call trace when named gets into
	this state.

	Thirdly is there anything being logged when this occurs.

	Mark
> 
> This behaviour was not anything I saw in 8.1.x. Is this a known bug? any
> fixes available?
> 
> 
> Also, I might add, that a SOA syntax that worked previously does not
> work any longer. We have: 
> 
> @               IN      SOA     ns.alcom.aland.fi.
> hostmaster.alcom.aland.fi. (
>                                 1999110201      ; Serial
>                                 28800           ; Refresh
>                                 7200            ; Retry
>                                 604800          ; Expire
>                                 86400           ; Default TTL
>                                 )
> 
> Which gives the following syslog message:
> Nov 30 14:07:44 aragon named[17893]: Zone "alcom.aland.fi" (file
> db-alcom.aland.fi): No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead
> 
> This syntax is OK though:
> 
> @               IN      SOA     ns.alcom.aland.fi.
> hostmaster.alcom.aland.fi. (
>                                 1999110201      ; Serial
>                                 28800           ; Refresh
>                                 7200            ; Retry
>                                 604800          ; Expire
>                                 86400 )         ; Default TTL
> 
> A bit irritating to have to edit all master zones ...
> 
> 
> -- Janne
> ------------- ÅLCOM ------------- Network Operations Center ---------
> Jan-Erik Eriksson		mailto: jee at alcom.aland.fi
> ÅLCOM				phone: +358 18 23500
> PB 233, Torggatan 10		fax: +358 18 14643
> FIN-22100 Mariehamn		URL: http://www.alcom.aland.fi
> 
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Internet Engines Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark_Andrews at iengines.com