Linux System Administration

What’s Next

|

71

;; Query time: 1 msec

;; SERVER: 70.253.158.42#53(70.253.158.42)

;; WHEN: Mon Jul 17 23:30:59 2006

;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 87

server1:~#

Notice that the status for this query is NXDOMAIN, which essentially means “no such

domain name.” If you leave out or misspell a hostname in the zone file, you’ll get this

error.

Another kind of error that you may see with dig is when a domain name is delegated

to your nameserver, but that domain is not configured in the server or otherwise fails

to load. This error returns a

status of SERVFAIL. If you see this error for one of your

domains, you need to add the domain to your named.conf file and ensure that there

is a valid zone file for it. If the error recurs after you have done those steps, check the

/var/log/syslog file for any messages about why the zone was not loaded. We’ll dem-

onstrate the problem with a domain name that is registered, but not currently in use:

server1:~# dig linhelp.org a

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> linhelp.org a

;; global options: printcmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 29949

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:

;linhelp.org. IN A

;; Query time: 2 msec

;; SERVER: 70.253.158.42#53(70.253.158.42)

;; WHEN: Mon Jul 17 23:47:14 2006

;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 37

server1:~#

What’s Next

By now you should be familiar with the basics of DNS and BIND. Administrators in

small-to-medium-size ...