Something's not *quite* right.

[Mark_Andrews at isc.org]

> On 31 Dec 2002 23:31:55 -0000, Mark_Andrews at isc.org wrote:
> 
> >
> >> 
> >> Howdy,
> >> I got my DHCP/BIND/DDNS system up and running.  And, amazingly enough,
> >> it works!  There's some flakey things going on however, that I haven't
> >> quite figured out.
> >> 
> >> My server has DHCP3.0pl1 and BIND.9.2.1 running.  All of the clients
> >> on my LAN are able to boot, send a hostname*, get an IP address, and
> >> be registered in the tables.  I'm able to ping hostnames and
> >> hostname.domainname for each of the registered hosts.  YIPPEE!
> >> 
> >> Two problems remain: 
> >> 
> >> 1) When I do an nslookup from one of the clients, I get: 
> >> [olsam at friday etc]$ nslookup
> >> *** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.128: Server failed
> >> *** Default servers are not available
> >> 
> >> Yet, dig and host work fine.  Huh?  I'm not *really* concerned since
> >> it's not affecting the usability, but I just wonder if it's a symptom
> >> of something larger.
> >
> >	Nslookup requires that the nameserver be able to look up its
> >	own reverse address.  This lookup is failing.  I suggest that
> >	you investigate by checking that the servers for
> >	168.192.in-addr.arpa and/or 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa is loading
> >	the zones properly.  
> 
> When I do a named -g, the only errors I get for the zone files are
> that there are no nameserver records, when indeed I do have a 
> '128 IN NS host.domain.dnsalias.com.' record.   (192.x file)
> '1 IN NS localhost.' (127.x file) nameserver records.  The error must
> be about something else; what could it be?

	Trust the nameserver.   It is *much* better at detecting missing
	NS records than humans are.  Post the master files along with the
	zone names.  Don't edit them in any way as that may obscure the
	error.

> Next ensure that there is a PTR record
> >	for 128.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.
> 
> There's a PTR record for 128 in my 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa file.
> Something still isn't right.
> 
> > 
> >> 2) My domainanme doesn't resolve.  I'm using a xyz.dnsalias.com
> >> domainname, and I can't ping it from the server or the clients.   (I
> >> should be able to ping xyz.dnsalias.com, and end up just pinging
> >> myself over the ADSL connection.) How do I set it up so that for this
> >> name it should go to dnsalias.com nameserver for resolution.
> >
> >	Add an entry to the dnsalias.com zone.
> 
> Would this be a forward only zone?  If so, would I forward it to my
> local ISP's DNS or directly to the domain, or to the domain's
> nameservers (whose IP addresses I don't know, but I guess I could find
> out using WHOIS.)

	The normal resolution process will do this.   If you want
	xyz.dnsalias.com to resolve it *has* to be added to the
	dnsalias.com zone.

; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> xyz.dnsalias.com 
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 2
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	xyz.dnsalias.com, type = A, class = IN

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dnsalias.com.		8m36s IN SOA	ns1.dyndns.org. twilde.dyndns.org. (
					2006210889	; serial
					10M		; refresh
					5M		; retry
					1W		; expiry
					10M )		; minimum


;; Total query time: 0 msec
;; FROM: drugs.dv.isc.org to SERVER: default -- 127.0.0.1
;; WHEN: Thu Jan  2 10:48:59 2003
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 34  rcvd: 91

> Thanks again,
> Oliver
> 
> >
> >> 
> >> Many thanks,
> >> Oliver
> >> 
> >> *except one. I need to set the DHCPCDARGS to add the '-h hostname'
> >> option to the dhcpd server at bootup, but, by gum I can't find out
> >> which file to add it to for my (ustabe) RedHat 7.2 system.  Any
> >> pointers?
> 
> The answer to this is to set the DHCP_HOSTNAME=hostname in the
> /etc/sysconfig/network file.
> 
> ====================================================
> Oliver Sampson                  
> olsam at quickaudio.com
> http://www.oliversampson.com
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at isc.org