nsquery and ping works - nslookup does not

[Tim Nelson]

Just ran into a weird issue where nslookup fails to lookup a fqdn
nsquery and ping both are successfull

resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf are configured as I have always configured them

resolv.conf
nameserver 172.20.1.10

nsswitch.conf
hosts: files [notfound=continue] dns

nslookup yahoo.com
*** Can't find server name for address 172.20.1.10: Non-existent domain
*** Default servers are not available
Using /etc/hosts on: uxapp2b

looking up FILES
Trying DNS
*** can't find yahoo.com: No response from server

If I run a manual nslookup and set the server to my NS then it works but not via command line even specifying the name server.

Any ideas ?

Multiple servers all 11.11 or 11.23 some from Sept 2006 patch bundle to June 2007 bundle.

Any ideas while I search the patch database ?

[Steven Schweda]

> *** Can't find server name for address 172.20.1.10: Non-existent domain

I know nothing, but the message makes it
appear that nslookup expects to be able to
get a name for the name server (172.20.1.10).

Have you tried adding an entry (with a name)
in /etc/hosts for 172.20.1.10?

[whiteknight]

Hi Tim,

What is your bind version ?

PHNE_33766 11.11 Bind 8.1.2 Patch
PHNE_36973 11.23 Bind 9.2.0 components

WK

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

See that server 172.20.1.10 is fully resonsive.

telent 172.20.1.10 53

You should get a connection. I suspect an off system problem with the nameserver nothing wit the system itself.

Regards,

SEP

[Tim Nelson]

Steven - Yes, There is an entry for the nameserver IP in the host table

WK - A respectfully recent PHNE_35920. Some older servers have the same issue running BIND 8.1.2. I will put the latest patch on my test server and get back to you.

SEP - Telnet connects to port 53, telnet, ping, nsquery, dig, succussfully lookup up many different DNS names. i.e. yahoo, hp, google, etc..

[John Guster]

please include domain and search in /etc/resolv.conf some thing like below:
domain abc.com
search abc.com abcnet.abc.com

[Tim Nelson]

Here is what it looks like so far.

nslookup ( being depreciated according to a number of HP knowledge base articles ) does some things differently.

One of which it will do a reverse lookup on the nameserver IP to set the default nameserver.

In my environment the DNS admins ( M$ world ) have chosen not to configure any reverse data. The reverse lookup also does NOT look in the local host file but only via DNS. This is causing nslookup to fail across the board. KBRC00013982 and emr_na-c00926219-1 for details on this nslookup functionality.

All DNS hostname resolution seems to work with the exception of nslookup.

On W2K nslookup complains in the same way about not being able to set the default dns server name but the query still works.

I guess the answer is. Use dig or nsquery. nslookup is being depreciated anyway. ( or get DNS admins to configure properly :)

Thanks all.

Tim

[Tim Nelson]

Had M$ admin add/fix reverse lookup in DNS.

Summary:
nslookup attempts to do a reverse lookup on the nameserver IP via DNS in order to set the default name server hostname. If the DNS server is not configured properly then nslookup fails for all lookups.