client.c Assertion Failure

[Ken Schweigert]

On 8/23/06, Mark Andrews <Mark_Andrews at isc.org> wrote:
>
> > For the past two nights one of the bind servers that I manage has
> > crashed and throws this error in syslog:
> >
> > Aug 23 01:52:28 servr named[3384]: client.c:1143: REQUIRE((((client)
> > != ((void *)0)) && (((const isc__magic_t *)(client))->magic == ((('N')
> > << 24 | ('S') << 16 | ('C') << 8 | ('c')))))) failed
> > Aug 23 01:52:28 servr named[3384]: exiting (due to assertion failure)
> >
> > The box is running Debian Sarge (3.1) on x86 with Bind 9.3.2 running
> > in a chroot jail.  The box has been running beautifully since April
> > this year.

> >
> > If I had to guess, my guess would be that the client querying the
> > server is not valid?  Hardly seems a reason to stop the server.  Or
> > maybe somebody is trying something not nice and Bind is stopping as a
> > safety measure.
> >
> > I also looked around and could not find any core dump files.
> >
> > I'm unable to tell anyone how to reproduce the error, but it did
> > happen near 2:00am both nights so I assume it will happen again
> > tonight.
> >
> > Is there anything I can do to get more details about what is
> > happening?  Some info I can gather that will help someone help me to
> > get this sorted out?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > -ken
>
>         In general, we need stack traces to go with assertion
>         failures to be able to work out what is going wrong.  The
>         assertion tells us where the bug was detected.  The stack
>         trace, usually, tells us how it occured.
>
>         BIND 9 is built using "Design by Contract".
>
>         Before reporting a bug you should ensure you are running a
>         current version.  BIND 9.3.3rc1 is currently available.  I
>         would install that and see if the problem re-occurs.  If
>         it does please log a bug report with bind9-bugs at isc.org
>         along with the stack backtrace.
>
>         Mark
> --
> Mark Andrews, ISC
> 1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
> PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark_Andrews at isc.org
>

Mark:

Thanks for your reply.  The server made it through the night without a
crash.  A fellow list member pointed me to 'rndc trace' to get a stack
trace so I'll be watching the logs for the next crash.  If there is
anything meaningful, I'll followup with a post to this thread.  If it
continues to happen I'll upgrade to the release candidate and see if
the problem continues.

-ken