DNS Problems

[Rob Smith]

Hi, I know zip about DNS so any help would be appreciated. These are 10.20 boxes using Windows NT, ugh not my decision, DNS servers. My resolv.conf looks like this:

search ######.com
nameserver 10.14.4.133
nameserver 10.14.12.133
nameserver 10.2.0.172

nsswitch:

hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns

When I do an nslookup, before I even enter anything I get this output:

/etc =>nslookup
*** Can't find server name for address 10.14.4.133: Non-existent domain
*** Can't find server name for address 10.14.12.133: Non-existent domain

But I can ping the above servers by hostname. Can somebody clue me in as to what is going on here. I started looking at this because of long telnet connection delays. Many thanks in advance and I will assign points. Also, are there any good HP online documents concerning DNS?

Regards,
Rob

[Kamlesh Shete]

Hi Rob,

Just a few thoughts,

First of all your resolv.conf file in the search line should have the right domain name.

ie: search domain.com
After you add this you can type the command "domainname" which should return the correct domainname

Also, do you have entries of these dns servers in the local /etc/hosts file. You might want to add these and give it a shot.

- kamlesh

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Rob:

"Installing and Administering Internet Services" is a good guide to DNS (BIND). Look at chapter-3.

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90147/B2355-90147.html

...JRF...

[Kevin Wright]

This more than likely means that the reverse DNS is not set up properly. Talk to your NT admin and have him check the PTR records for the servers.

[Kamlesh Shete]

Hi Rob,

I agree with Kevins suggestion, but you need the dns server entries in the /etc/hosts file, otherwise you are trying to resolve a name thru dns of a server whose name is not known!!

- Kamlesh

[Peggy Fong]

I disagree with those who say the dns needs to be in /etc/hosts. The resolv.conf is using the ip address, it can be pinged by the server. The previous answers should help. I'd add one more thing, if the dns is in a different domain (which is possible) you need to list those domains in your search list (there is a limit to the number of characters allowed in the search list (I think it is around 256 characters). But this should not be a problem in this case.
Good Luck.
Peggy

[Rob Smith]

Hi, I would like to thank all of you for your quick responses and valuable suggestions.

Regards,
Rob

[Les Schuettpelz]

Dave Fargo using Les's ITRC login..

For nsswitch.conf, we like:

hosts : dns [NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=return] files

And the nameserver hostnames are always found in /etc/hosts. This works better if the nameservers are unavailable.

I am not familiar with the ######.com syntax for search list. Are you trying to wildcard or just don't want us to know the domain name?

I think the best rule is, if there is just one domain the server needs to know about, then use the domain option, otherwise you should use search to list multiple subdomains, so more things can be minimally-qualified. See the 'man 4 resolver' for details.

[Michael Simone]

I had the same error, and found that I needed to add a PTR record for my DNS server to the DNS server itself.

This goes in the Reverse Lookup zone, and resolves the DNS server's name when nslookup does its query.

Worked like a charm.