my clients nor my DNS server can't ping anything outside of my zone

[Barry Margolin]

In article <ab5h78$5ect$1 at isrv4.isc.org>, James Lee <csejl at yahoo.com> wrote:
>The problem is that my clients in westwood.st.mycompany.com as well as
>my DNS server (westwood.westwood.st.novell.com) are only able to
>resolve names that are in the zone and nothing outside the zone.  This
>is where db.cache comes in, correct?  I have downloaded this file from
>InterNic and tried adding dns.st.mycompany.com entry in there but it
>gives me the following warning:
>
>check_hints: root NS list in hints for class 1 does not match root NS
>list

Do you have "forwarders" configured on your server?  That will prevent your
server from contacting the root servers.  If the server you're forwarding
to does not have a correct root server list, you'll get that message.

>When I request to resolve a name that is not in the zone, my DNS
>server should contact dns.st.mycompany.com for an answer, right?  But,
>I don't know how to do this.

No, your server should contact a root server, which will refer it to the
proper servers for the domain in question, and it will then contact one of
them.

>I guess I can put the ip address of dns.st.mycompany.com in
>/etc/resolv.conf ON my DNS server but this is not the correct way,
>correct?  Should I even have /etc/resolv.conf ON my DNS server?  My
>/etc/nsswitch.conf is configured to use dns.  When I run, for example,
>ping on my DNS server (westwood.westwood.st.novell.com) how is it
>supposed to resolve names?

Since your DNS server is also an ordinary host running client applications,
it needs resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf for the benefit of programs running
on the same machine.  But these files have no effect on the behavior of the
nameserver, so they don't affect what your clients see.  They need to make
sure that *their* resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf files are correct.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
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