Only a subset of A records for a domain name returned

Tue Mar 22 22:32:50 UTC 2005

1) DNS data is not static. Who's to say Inktomi/Yahoo didn't delete a 
bunch of records in between your queries?
2) More likely, though, this is some sort of load-balancer device that's 
returning different answers to spread out load among multiple servers, 
deal with down servers, etc.

Really, though, why do you care? Is a dozen A records not enough 
redundancy for you?

                                                      - Kevin

rlz7 wrote:

>When I query the authoritative DNS servers for a domain, I get
>the following:
>
>dig @ns21.yahoo.com proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com
>
>; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> @ns21.yahoo.com
>proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com
>;; global options:  printcmd
>;; Got answer:
>;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 56036
>;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 24, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1
>
>;; QUESTION SECTION:
>;proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com. IN        A
>
>;; ANSWER SECTION:
>proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN CNAME
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com.
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.150
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.128
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.129
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.130
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.131
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.132
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.133
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.134
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.135
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.136
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.137
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.138
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.139
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.140
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.141
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.142
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.143
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.144
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.145
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.146
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.147
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.148
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.149
>
>;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
>idp.inktomisearch.com.  300     IN      NS      ns21.yahoo.com.
>idp.inktomisearch.com.  300     IN      NS      ns22.yahoo.com.
>
>;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
>ns21.yahoo.com.         1408    IN      A       66.163.169.46
>
>;; Query time: 71 msec
>;; SERVER: 66.163.169.46#53(ns21.yahoo.com)
>;; WHEN: Mon Mar 21 21:03:52 2005
>;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 509
>
>But when I query my ISP's DNS server, I only get a subset of
>these records returned:
>
>dig  proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com
>; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com
>;; global options:  printcmd
>;; Got answer:
>;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 53749
>;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 13, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2
>
>;; QUESTION SECTION:
>;proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com. IN        A
>
>;; ANSWER SECTION:
>proxy-kk-west.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN CNAME
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com.
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.128
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.129
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.130
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.131
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.132
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.133
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.134
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.135
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.136
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.137
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.138
>idpproxy-kkw1.idp.inktomisearch.com. 300 IN A   66.196.78.139
>
>;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
>idp.inktomisearch.com.  300     IN      NS      ns22.yahoo.com.
>idp.inktomisearch.com.  300     IN      NS      ns21.yahoo.com.
>
>;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
>ns21.yahoo.com.         1634    IN      A       66.163.169.46
>ns22.yahoo.com.         1152    IN      A       216.109.116.23
>
>;; Query time: 105 msec
>;; SERVER: 206.13.29.12#53(206.13.29.12)
>;; WHEN: Mon Mar 21 21:06:15 2005
>;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 349
>
>So there are 23 A records in the reply from Yahoo's DNS server, but
>only
>a dozen from my ISP's DNS server (sbcglobal.net).  The TTL associated
>with the
>records seems fairly short (300).  I can replicate this problem using
>other
>DNS servers (for the same lookup) as well.
>
>Can someone shed some light on these results?  Thanks ...
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>