SERVFAIL - dig and host

[Alan Clegg]

Valentin Nechayev wrote:
>> When I do a "dig" and the result is SERVFAIL is there a way to determine
>> exactly what is causing the SERVFAIL?  I looked in the query.c source,
>> and I see that there are a number of cases that result in SERVFAIL.
> 
> Really, no way without searching inside DNS server state. This can be e.g.
> slave zone which expired locally without possibility to transfer from
> master, NSes pointing to invalid servers, etc. So, if you aren't 
> administrator of this DNS server, ask the administrator. If you are
> administrator, check zone state, inspect cache, make full search procedure
> beginning from the root servers.

An upcoming release of BIND (not sure which one at this point) will
include further SERVFAIL instrumentation, allowing the administrator of
the server generating the SERVFAIL to log (to a new channel) more
information as to why the SERVFAIL is being returned.

AlanC