How to get BIND to query the right server?

Rich Parkin RParkin at ldmi.com
Thu Jul 22 13:25:10 UTC 2004


When I go to a root server (say f.root-servers.net) and ask about
house.gov, this is what I get:

gov     nameserver = B.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = C.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = D.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = E.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = F.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = G.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM
gov     nameserver = A.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM

When I asked B.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM about house.gov, it directed me back to
the root servers, which it shouldn't have done.  Two different root
servers directed me back to this list, so I assume it's good.  I picked
a different server, G.GOV.ZONEEDIT.COM, and got back a different
response:

house.gov       nameserver = MERCURY.house.gov
house.gov       nameserver = TUNGSTEN.house.gov

Seems to me like this problem has more to do with the zone itself than
with your DNS server.  Whoever is maintaining those TLD servers for gov
needs to make sure they all agree.


Richard Parkin
System Administrator
CCNA
Data Center Operations
LDMI Telecommunications

>>> Adam Beneschan <adam at irvine.com> 7/21/2004 1:22:30 PM >>>
We have two machines running BIND.  On Machine 1, I can access .gov
sites (such as www.house.gov) with no problem.  On Machine 2, it gives
me "unknown host".  When I try to ping www.house.gov on Machine 2, its
syslog contains these entries:

named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.35.51.32].53 'F3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.42.93.32].53 'G3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.33.14.32].53 'B3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.5.6.32].53 'A3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.12.94.32].53 'E3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.41.162.32].53 'L3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.55.83.32].53 'M3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.26.92.32].53 'C3.NSTLD.COM'
named[1645]: Lame server on 'www.house.gov' (in 'GOV'?):
[192.31.80.32].53 'D3.NSTLD.COM'

I've also seen this message:

named[1902]: ns_forw: query(www.house.gov) All possible A RR's lame

I tried getting named to dump.  On Machine 2, I found this in
named_dump.db: 

GOV	86400	IN	NS	L3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	D3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	A3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	E3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	C3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	F3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	G3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	B3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430
	86400	IN	NS	M3.NSTLD.COM.	;Cl=0 LAME=430

But on Machine 1, which works, named_dump.db has this:

GOV	172800	IN	NS	A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0
	172800	IN	NS	D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.	;Cl=0

Somehow I need to convince BIND on Machine 2 to stop querying the
wrong server and start querying the right one, but I can't figure out
how to tell it what to do.

Any suggestions?

                                -- thanks, Adam



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