SERVFAIL - dig and host

[Valentin Nechayev]

>      desktop% dig igpp.ucla.edu
>      ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 4
>      desktop% host igpp.ucla.edu
>      Host igpp.ucla.edu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
>      desktop%
> 
> When I do a "dig" and the result is SERVFAIL is there a way to determine
> exactly what is causing the SERVFAIL?  I looked in the query.c source,
> and I see that there are a number of cases that result in SERVFAIL.

Really, no way without searching inside DNS server state. This can be e.g.
slave zone which expired locally without possibility to transfer from
master, NSes pointing to invalid servers, etc. So, if you aren't 
administrator of this DNS server, ask the administrator. If you are
administrator, check zone state, inspect cache, make full search procedure
beginning from the root servers.

> Note that the "host" command returns NXDOMAIN.  I have not looked at
> the source for "host".  Is that command converting SERVFAIL to
> NXDOMAIN, or can the "host" command produce a SERVFAIL response?

Add -v option to host and check what does it print.


-netch-