Need Help with Interpreting Response Header

[Mark.Andrews at nominum.com]

	It looks like byu.edu is an invalid zone which will cause a
	BIND 8 secondary to invalidate the zone.

	At a mimimum there are the following errors:

		visitor.byu.edu has CNAME and other data 
		bcscluster.byu.edu points to self
		smart.byu.edu has CNAME and other data
		stlgate.byu.edu has CNAME and other data
		design.byu.edu points to self
		ias.byu.edu has CNAME and other data

	NS1.WESTNET.NET is not a nameserver for rn.byu.edu however
	the errors above cause it not to add the NS records to the
	response.

	Mark
> 
> Hi.  I've encountered a situation where queries for a particular
> domain name don't always work.  Here are the details:
> 
>   * The root servers list the following for 'byu.edu':
> 
>     ;; ANSWER SECTION:
>     byu.edu.                2D IN NS        NS1.WESTNET.NET.
>     byu.edu.                2D IN NS        NS1.byu.edu.
>     byu.edu.                2D IN NS        NS.byu.edu.
> 
>   * A query type of 'any' for 'cnkiosk-morc-1.rn.byu.edu'
>     returns nothing the first time it is tried.  However,
>     a second attempt does return an Address record.
> 
>   * It appears that NS1.WESTNET.NET is not authoritative for byu.edu.
> 
> Question:  When DiG returns a header of
> 
>     ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
>     ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
> 
> can it be safely assumed that a lame nameserver was queried or are there
> other scenarios which would cause a query to return this (non)information?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andris Kalnozols
> 
> 
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com