intermittent ndc startup

[Kevin Darcy]

ns at linuxplanet.nu wrote:

> Please ignore my last message, I had an error in my reverse files.
>
> my next question is this:  In an internal name server, I have the entry below
> in my delegated name server master file:
>
> $TTL 86400
> .       99999999 IN NS top.example.com.
>         99999999 IN NS top.example.net.
> top.example.com. 99999999 IN A 192.168.3.78
> top.example.net. 99999999 IN A 192.168.3.78
>
> I get the following error in messages file:
>
> Jun 11 19:41:58 beer  named[582]: Zone "" (file db.root): no SOA RR found
> Jun 11 19:41:58 beer  named[582]: master zone "" (IN) rejected due to errors
> (seri
> al 0)
>
> Why do I get the above error.

Because that's a hints file, not a master file for the root zone. Like the
message says, the zonefile is missing an SOA record (at the very least).

Oh, and what's the point of having two root servers with the same address?

> what entry must I have in the master file on my root server itself.
> Should it be:
>
> $TTL 86400
> example.com.    IN      SOA     top.example.com. hostmaster.example.com.
> (  200105212   ; serial2H   ; refresh  1H    ; retry 1W  ; expire  1D ) ;

That SOA looks pretty badly munged. Did your mailer do that? The numerics need
to be the first non-whitespace things on each line

> minimum
>
>                 IN      NS      top.example.com.
>                 IN      NS      top.example.net.
> #declare a record for root server here
> top    99999999 IN A 192.168.3.78
>
> beer.example.com.  1D  IN  NS  beer.example.com. #delegate ns
> beer.example.com.  1D  IN  A   172.16.132.103  #A record of delegated ns
> #declare all delegated nameserver here.

What's the purpose of the "top" A record? It defines a name "top" in the root
zone, but this doesn't match the preceding comment "declare a record for root
server here", since "top" is not a root server, based on what you've shown. You
*do* however, need to provide some way for the *real* root server names,
top.example.com and top.example.net, to be resolved into address records. This
implies that you need to delegate those names, or some intermediate domain level
(e.g. com, net, example.com and/or example.net) from the root zone, or you need
to define the top.example.com and top.example.net A records directly in the root
zone. The fact that you are delegating beer.example.com directly from the root
implies that you are delegating neither com nor example.com. Therefore I'd say
your root zone is missing an A record or a delegation for top.example.com, at
the very least.


- Kevin