SERVFAIL for a few recurring domains

[Barry Margolin]

In article <9uqqk7$a4j at pub3.rc.vix.com>,
England, Robert (Robert) <england at northamerica.exchange.agere.com> wrote:
>We continue to get a SERVFAIL for a few recurring domains when trying to
>send them email. But this is an intermittent problem. 
>The domains are:
> 
>Samsung.co.kr
>mic.com.tw 
>hpcoho.com
>Digitalcommerce.com
>infomail.co.kr
>rocketchips.com
>accusort.com
>amkor.com
>goscs.com
>samsung.com
>zaiqtech.com
>afere.com
> 
>If I let the messages sit in the queue, sometime they will eventually get
>sent.
> 
>We are running BIND 8.2.4, on Solaris
> 
>We have verified that sendmail is not configured to not require the AA flag
>be set.
> 
>We have disabled negative cache right now for testing and troubleshooting,
>by setting negative cache to 0.
> 
>If I dig for the domain A or MX records I get a servfail, if I did for NS
>records I get them. If I set my server to the ones listed for the NS records
>I find the A and MX records. But switching back to our name server and then

Did you remember to set the no-recurse option when querying the servers in
the NS records?  If not, you're not querying them the same way your name
server does, and your results will differ (a lame server can recurse and
get the answer from one of the other servers).

>looking up the MX will fail again with a servfail messages.

I only tried the first domain in your list, but 2 of the three servers for
the domain are lame.  red.samsung.co.kr and green.samsung.co.kr are
non-authoritative and don't have the domain loaded.

% dig imail00.samsung.co.kr a @203.241.135.135 +norec

; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> imail00.samsung.co.kr a @203.241.135.135 +norec 
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37804
;; flags: qr ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 3
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	imail00.samsung.co.kr, type = A, class = IN

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
samsung.co.kr.		8m13s IN NS	nic.samsung.co.kr.
samsung.co.kr.		8m13s IN NS	red.samsung.co.kr.
samsung.co.kr.		8m13s IN NS	green.samsung.co.kr.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
nic.samsung.co.kr.	56m22s IN A	203.241.132.34
red.samsung.co.kr.	1h27m35s IN A	203.241.135.130
green.samsung.co.kr.	22m5s IN A	203.241.135.135

;; Total query time: 193 msec
;; FROM: tools.genuity.com to SERVER: 203.241.135.135
;; WHEN: Fri Dec  7 11:35:08 2001
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 39  rcvd: 143

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
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