numpty CNAME & MX question.

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "dave" == dave  <sysadmin at kingston-internet.net> writes:

    dave> I have a zone with the following data in it:-
    dave> sales IN CNAME server.companydomain.cx 
    dave> sales IN MX 10 mailcore.companydomain.cx

    dave> When I do a ndc reload, the zone is rejected with errors:-

    dave> named[13174]: sales.companydomain.cx has CNAME and other data (invalid) 
    dave> named[13174]: primary/companydomain.cx:19:sales.companydomain.cx: CNAME and OTHER data error 
    dave> named[13174]: master zone "jaguarcentre.co.uk" (IN) rejected due to errors (serial 2000070501)

    dave> I solved it by changing the CNAME to a A record, and both
    dave> records now resolve correctly.

    dave> My question: Why did it fail?

Because it's illegal to have a name that exists as a CNAME to also
exist as some other record type. Like MX. Hence the report about
"CNAME and other data" error for the name "sales" in your zone file.

    dave> Also what does:-

    dave> sysquery: findns error (NXDOMAIN) on mydnsserver.companydomain.cx?

It means that mydnsserver.companydomain.cx is the target of an NS
record somewhere, but there's no A record for that name. In other
words, findns() - the routine the name server uses to locate a name
server - got an NXDOMAIN error - "no such host/domain" when it looked
up mydnsserver.companydomain.cx.

WHY can't you provide the *real* names? Hiding them does nothing
except make it difficult to debug problems. In this case, the real
names would be better than discussing some name in abstract terms.
Or confusing your invented name with an existing domain name.