DNS: named msgs, CNAME problems, to upgrade ??

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Jeffrey" == Jeffrey J Bacon <jeff.bacon at breakfast.ca> writes:

    Jeffrey> 1. If I upgrade to BIND 9 can I just use an rpm and
    Jeffrey> upgrade my 8.2.3 installation?  Do I have to re-write my
    Jeffrey> config file or will it just import the current ones?  

Read the migration notes in the BIND9 documentation. Your existing
config file should be OK, though there are some obscure corner cases
like case sensitivity in the names of ACLs and the names of some
logging categories. The main difference is BIND9 doesn't have a UNIX
domain control socket: it has to be an internet one. You can use
BIND9's named-checkconf to check named.conf for syntax errors. This
uses the same config file parser as named. And named-checkzone can be
use to check zone files for syntax errors.

    Jeffrey> Is there any reason NOT to upgrade to BIND 9?

No, unless maybe you're running a root server.

    Jeffrey> 2. This message appears while running named: sysquery:
    Jeffrey> findns error on (NXDOMAIN) bacon.breakfast.ca?  what does
    Jeffrey> it mean?

This is a FAQ. Go to the list archives and search for sysquery. Your
name server found an NS record pointing at bacon.breakfast.ca but
there's no A record for that name.

    Jeffrey> 3. I am hosting my roommates domain on my Linux box as
    Jeffrey> well.  We have separate external IP addresses.  He has me
    Jeffrey> set @ CIRA (.ca domain registry) as his primary and
    Jeffrey> secondary nameserver.  My domain works fine on my machine
    Jeffrey> and I basically copied my zone file and changed the
    Jeffrey> domain and IP in it to make his file.  None of the CNAME
    Jeffrey> entries in his domain work but the main domain still
    Jeffrey> resolves.  Is there anything special I have to do for his
    Jeffrey> domain since the DNS zone hosted by me points to another
    Jeffrey> IP address (his) instead of my computer?

Since you've not provided any useful information, how do you expect
help? What's the name and address of your server? What's the name your
friend's domain? What *exactly* is in that zone file? What's in your
name server's logs when the zone gets loaded? And why is your server
acting as master and slave for the same zone? BIND doesn't allow two
zone{} statements in named.conf for the same zone. It isn't sensible
either. The whole idea of having 2 or more name servers for a zone is
to prevent a single point of failure.

There's a very reliable and free slave DNS service for small zones (up
to 100 resource records or 5 zones) at secondary.com. Use that for an
off-site slave name server.