dig printout doesn't appear to match reality

[sthaug at nethelp.no]

> It appears that dig is printing results that it attributes to the wrong
> server.

Not really.

> While troubleshooting an inconsistent NS issue (upstream from us), a trace
> (at the end of this message) shows that DNS3.UIOWA.EDU listed two NS
> records, when in fact, if you query DNS3.UIOWA.EDU for the domain in
> question it returns three NS records.  The results that were returned belong
> to either DNS-2.IASTATE.EDU or DNS2.ICN.STATE.ia.us.
> 
> Why is dig attributing it to one NS server when it belongs to another?

Try with and without +norec and you'll see the difference:

% dig +norec ns sioux-center.k12.ia.us. @128.255.1.8

;; flags: qr ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
sioux-center.k12.ia.us. 28800   IN      NS      ns1.netins.net.
sioux-center.k12.ia.us. 28800   IN      NS      dns.mtcnet.net.

% dig ns sioux-center.k12.ia.us. @128.255.1.8

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; ANSWER SECTION:
sioux-center.k12.ia.us. 82485   IN      NS      ns2.mtcnet.net.
sioux-center.k12.ia.us. 82485   IN      NS      ns1.mtcnet.net.
sioux-center.k12.ia.us. 82485   IN      NS      ns1.netins.net.

One could certainly argue that DNS3.UIOWA.EDU should not behave this
way.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug at nethelp.no