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Chapter 3: The Domain Name System
Troubleshooting BIND
At this point in the chapter, you should have a functional knowledge of DNS. You
should also know how to configure your files and how to find syntax problems in
them, such as typographical errors. In this section we will cover some basic, com-
mon problems that you may encounter when getting BIND and DNS working. This
is not an exhaustive treatise, but it should help you get DNS running on your Linux
server if you have problems getting your domain to resolve hostnames or do zone
transfers.
The Domain Name System is designed very robustly, but strange
errors can still occasionally happen. By strictly following the patterns
for creating zone files described earlier in this chapter, you can avoid
subtle problems that are beyond this book’s scope.
Cannot Connect Using rndc
To begin, let’s see a healthy indication of DNS resolution. Earlier, we discussed using
the rndc status command to show the current running status of our DNS server. Let’s
try logging onto the server as root and running the command:
server1:~# rndc status
number of zones: 6
debug level: 0
xfers running: 0
xfers deferred: 0
soa queries in progress: 0
query logging is OFF
server is up and running
server1:~#
The rndc command depends on a shared key file at /etc/bind/rndc.key for named to
accept its commands. Problems with that file can prevent rndc from sending the
commands. Here is an ...