SERVFAIL - need advice on diagnosing

Whit Blauvelt whit at transpect.com
Tue Nov 27 20:41:24 UTC 2001


Hi,

I have bind 9.1.1 (compiled from source) running identically on two Debian
Linux systems. One is literally a clone of the other, except with a
different public connection. Both are identically configured as secondary
DNS for a couple of domains. Both were working fine until recently. Now, one
of them is doing "SERVFAIL" instead, whether accessed locally or remotely.
Like:

# dig @localhost some.com

; <<>> DiG 9.1.1 <<>> @localhost some.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 44692
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;some.com.               IN      A

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(localhost)
;; WHEN: Tue Nov 27 15:38:22 2001
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 33

There is nothing showing up in the logs, and I can't find anything on
SERVFAIL in the docs except for an RFC that has nothing much to do with
diagnosis. The named daemon is running, it's just SERVFAILing. What are
useful diagnostic steps? Is there a guide somewhere?

Thanks,
Whit



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