I really need help here.

I am trying to sort out dns on a linux machine, but no matter what i do it just doesnt seem to work. I am sorting out dns for a domain, but even after putting the entries in /etc/named.boot for the localhost nslookup to work, referencing the correct file in /var/named - it still says server failed when I try to do a nslookup on the domain.

I have tried editing named.boot and the actual domain zonefile in /var/named in numerous ways, but it just doesnt work, Im pulling my hair out here!!

Can someone help me, i must be missing something somewhere.

Regards

Need more data.

Is dns even currently running? Are you sure that you are doing nslookup on your server and not someone else's? Are other domains functioning fine? Did you edit any of the files from a windows machine?

Maybe if you cut and past the files we could find the typo or other problem.

If all else fails ask mr dns is an excellent resource for dns related problems. http://www.acmebw.com/askmrdns/

I feel like i am in the twilight zone here, at 3am today this was not working, so i went to sleep. got up at 11 and suddenly the nslookup is, and the domain is accessible over the internet. maybe its got to do with propagation? but i dont see how since i was querying a domain on my own name server.

anyway i made a new zonefile for another domain, and added the entry in /etc/named.boot, and edited /etc/named.conf accordingly. restarted named, and it worked immediately when i queried the domain name???

i dont understand. at least it works but i would like to know what i did that made it work first time. do i need to put an entry for each zonefile in /etc/named.boot? what other files do i need to edit?

thanks for any help

The best way to answer your question is to see the /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/named.conf and the actual zone files, etc. There can be many things in DNS to cause problems and without seeing the files, any suggestions would be just wild guesses.

sorry about the late reply to this, this was something I was doing in my part time. I feel kind of stupid, but hope my mistakes will help others, I have learnt:

If you are managing dns be VERY pedantic about syntax in your zonefiles, make sure you stick closely to what is reagarded as a template zone file - after messing about with backups I had made of the zones which did not work I realised that it was my syntax which was wrong at one or two places, and this was enough for any queries to not work on those zones. My advice is to get the DNS and BIND book from O'Reilly, this helped alot, and also create a .template file in your /named directory (which just has a template for the SOA down to TTL header of zone files) and whenever making new zones, use that to copy from, it is very useful. Finally after making so many changes and losing my trail I decided to put my whole dns zone file editing under SCCS control, this way I can keep an audit trail of what is done, when and why - I have found it very useful indeed. SCCS is good, and simple, for that. man SCCS for info.

Hope this prevents someone having the same grief I had!