Should there be an A-record pointing to my nameserver?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <9ot6ho$10r at pub3.rc.vix.com>,
Bart Mortelmans <Usenet at bNamed.be> wrote:
>
>Greetings,
>
>I've been having some trouble with a Perl-script that should do an
>NSLookup and I think the script doesn't work on a certain server
>because the nameserver of that machine hasn't got an A-record for
>itself.
>
>Let me explain: I host my site on the "oxygen"-server. The standard
>nameserver for this machine is ns1.oxygendns.net. The SOA for the
>oxygendns.net-domain is also ns1.oxygendns.net. When I query
>ns1.oxygendns.net for the A-record of ns1.oxygendns.net, it returns:
>"Non-existent domain".
>
>Is it possible that the absence of this A-record can be a problem for
>scripts running on that server? My provider sais there's no need for
>this A-record since the "glue" records (do I get this right?) at
>Internic (or whatever registrar they use) are OK.

You should add the records.  Records in the authoritative servers are
considered more reliable than glue records in the parent domain.  Glue
records should not be considered a replacement for records on the
authoritative servers, they're just a necessary evil to solve an infinite
recursion problem.

Suppose, for instance, a server has the following records in its cache:

oxygendns.net.     NS ns1.oxygendns.net.
oxygendns.net.     NS ns2.oxygendns.net.
ns2.oxygendns.net. A  212.69.234.234

but it doesn't have ns1.oxygendns.net's A record in its cache.  When you
want to look up something, you always try the server for the deepest level
domain that you know of.  In this case, you'll ask the oxygendns.net server
rather than the .net server, and it will reply that the name does not
exist.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
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