Delegation question and nslookup wierdness

[Nicholas Ritter]

I have a question regarding delegation of subdomains that also relates 
to some weird nslookup behavior.

We have a class B ip space that we subnet pure class C subnets (on the 
octet boundry), with a subdomain for just about each subnet. I have a 
few subdomains that we are delegating to other institutions. With one 
domain that were are delegating, I can't seem to get it to work quite 
right, and would like to know what you all think.

We are running BIND 8.2.3 on RedHat, and the zone table and named.conf 
section for the domain in question look like this:


SOA DNS for lfc.edu: lfcnms.lfc.edu
delegated SOA DNS for lfa.lfc.edu: lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
subdomain: lfa.lfc.edu.
ip subnet: 164.68.100.xxx



named.conf:

zone "lfa.lfc.edu" in {
       type master;
       file "lfa.lfc.edu.data";
       allow-transfer { none; };
};

zone "100.68.164.in-addr.arpa" {
       type master;
       file "100.data";
       allow-transfer { none; };
};



Zone files:

lfa.lfc.edu:


lfa.lfc.edu. IN SOA lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu. ritter.LFC.EDU. (
               1830428 ; Serial
               10800 ; refresh every 3 hours
               3600 ; retry every 1 hour
               604800 ; expire in 1 week
               86400 ) ; minimum TTL of 24 hours
;
;
; DNS servers for this arpa zone
;
lfa.lfc.edu.    IN NS  lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu.

;
;
;
lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu.     IN      A       164.68.100.4
                       MX      0       gwia.lfa.lfc.edu.

lfa.lfc.edu.            MX      10      gwia.lfa.lfc.edu.
lfa.lfc.edu.            IN      A       164.68.100.4

www.lfa.lfc.edu.                IN      CNAME           lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu.

gwia.lfa.lfc.edu.               IN       A       164.68.100.3
                               MX       0       gwia.lfa.lfc.edu.



100.68.164.in-addr.arpa:


100.68.164.in-addr.arpa. IN SOA lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu. ritter.LFC.EDU. (
               1361516 ; Serial
               10800 ; refresh every 3 hours
               3600 ; retry every 1 hour
               604800 ; expire in 1 week
               86400 ) ; minimum TTL of 24 hours
;
;
; DNS servers for this arpa zone
;
100.68.164.in-addr.arpa.  IN  NS  lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu.
;
;
;
3.100.68.164.in-addr.arpa.      IN      PTR     gwia.lfa.lfc.edu.
4.100.68.164.in-addr.arpa.      IN      PTR     lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu.
;




Is there anything wrong with the above config? I know that I am supposed 
to have two NS records for each zone, which I actually have, but not in 
yet. My question is, do I have the zones setup correctly in named.conf, 
and in the zone files themselves?

On a related note, I notice that my SOA dns is not asking the 
lfa.lfc.edu SOA dns for records, and I don't know why. I figured it was 
a delegation issue of some sort, but not sure. I had to stick 
www.lfa.lfc.edu in my tables in order for it to work, even though the 
SOA server for lfa.lfc.edu has the record in it's tables.


Additionally, I notice that I can do forward and reverse lookups, but I 
can't do both when I set type to any in nslookup. Any reason why? Below 
is the nslookup output.

Thanx in advance for any input that you all can give me.

Nicholas



nslookup output:

Default Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

 > www.lfa.lfc.edu
Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

Name:    lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.100.4
Aliases:  www.lfa.lfc.edu

 > lfa.lfc.edu
Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

Name:    lfa.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.100.4

 > 164.68.100.4
Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

Name:    lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.100.4

 > set type=any
 > lfa.lfc.edu
Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

lfa.lfc.edu    nameserver = lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
lfa.lfc.edu
   origin = lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
   mail addr = ritter.lfc.edu
   serial = 1830428
   refresh = 10800 (3H)
   retry   = 3600 (1H)
   expire  = 604800 (1W)
   minimum ttl = 86400 (1D)
lfa.lfc.edu    internet address = 164.68.100.4
lfa.lfc.edu    preference = 10, mail exchanger = gwia.lfa.lfc.edu
lfa.lfc.edu    nameserver = lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu
lfapdc.lfa.lfc.edu    internet address = 164.68.100.4
gwia.lfa.lfc.edu    internet address = 164.68.100.3
 > 164.68.100.4
Server:  lfcnms.lfc.edu
Address:  164.68.1.2

*** lfcnms.lfc.edu can't find 164.68.100.4: Non-existent host/domain