DNS Delegation

[Kevin Darcy]

Frank Zanotti wrote:

> Hi,
>     I am having problems with delegation. I have a RH Linux box V6.2 running
> BIND version 8.2.2P5 and a Microsoft Windows 2000 DNS server. On the Linux
> box I create a zone in the /etc/named.conf file (foo.com) type master and I
> create a file in /var/named called (db.foo). In the (db.foo) file I create a
> Delegated sub-zone called (dom.foo.com) with a NS and an A record pointing
> to the Windows 2000 dns server (dom.foo.com    NS win2kdns.domain.com.)
> (win2kdns.domain.com    A    168.109.100.1). On the Windows 2000 dns server
> I create a forward zone (dom.foo.com) I then add a host (computer01    A
> 168.109.5.10), I then go to a resolver that points to the RH DNS (client of
> the RH DNS) and ping (computer01.dom.foo.com) I receive an error "unknown
> host computer01.dom.foo.com."  I'm now very confused on why this does not
> work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This could be any number of things. You could try turning on debugging on the
BIND server and look through the output. But this may be rather intimidating
(the section on reading debugging output in the _DNS_and_BIND_ book should help
though).

Another, simpler diagnostic step is to mimic what your BIND server is doing
when it tries to resolve the name. From the RH box, send a *nonrecursive* query
of the name, using your favorite query tool (hopefully "dig") directly to the
Win2K box. If you get a NXDOMAIN response code or NOERROR and 0 responses, then
the Win2K box is apparently giving the wrong answer. If you get the right
response from the Win2K box, then apparently there is something wrong with the
delegation or the BIND nameserver is somehow not using it. That would call for
more extensive debugging.


- Kevin