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dns problem

 
K.C. Chan
Trusted Contributor

dns problem

All, I am getting this error " ** server can't find mail.digitalmetal.com.: SERVFAIL". when doing an nslookup for mail.digitalmetal.com, but after restarting named the lookup succeed. Any idea? Thanks.
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12 REPLIES 12
Federico Joselevich
New Member

Re: dns problem

what's on your resolv.conf file? Perhaps you nslookup is just using your own server to resolve names and when you restart it (actualy, when you start it), it starts resolving.

Does it happens just with mail.digitalmetal.com or is the same with other servers?
Jeffrey S. Sims
Trusted Contributor

Re: dns problem

I would have to say it is either your resolv.conf or you didn't have the service started in the first place. If you are sure neither of these is the problem the check your dns cache file and make sure it is current.
K.C. Chan
Trusted Contributor

Re: dns problem

resolv.conf is find and the service is started bec. I can resolved such address as www.yahoo.com, msn.com, and othters. It only happen on mail.digitalmetal.com.
Reputation of a thousand years can be determined by the conduct of an hour
Mark Fenton
Esteemed Contributor

Re: dns problem

Michael -- so your question is why does your name server stop responding for digitalmetal.com? (I'm assuming that you are the name server for digitalmetal.com).

For the answer to that you'll have to dig into the logs of what named is doing. Maybe it would be instructive to run named with debugging turned on for a while to see where it's hanging up.

named -d

Mark
K.C. Chan
Trusted Contributor

Re: dns problem

No, I am not an authorative named server for mail.digitalmetal.com, here's what the output looks like when doing "nslookup -sil mail.digitalmetal.com" via my named server:
Server: nameserver
Address: xx.xx.xx.xx#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mail.digitalmetal.com
Address: 209.15.2.80

any idea why sometimes it yields, can't find ...: SERVFAIL error messages until named is restarted?
Reputation of a thousand years can be determined by the conduct of an hour
Chris Dick
New Member

Re: dns problem

Hello Michael,

May I ask what you are doing asking questions about mail.digitalmetal.com? You are not part of the DigitalMetal team, and I've never heard of your at our hosting company.

Even though this is almost 6 months after the fact, I urge you to reply.

Chris
DigitalMetal.com
K.C. Chan
Trusted Contributor

Re: dns problem

Chris,
The reason I did responds is bec. I haven't check back for a while bec. I am too busy handling other projects at work.
Reputation of a thousand years can be determined by the conduct of an hour
K.C. Chan
Trusted Contributor

Re: dns problem

No, I am not an authorative dns server for digitalmetal.com, however our internal dns server sometimes can not resolve "mail.digitalmetal.com." It just stop returning non-authorative query results. But If I restarted my dns server, it is able to returns the name lookup (non-authorative offcourse). I would like to know why it stops working for mail.digitalmetal.com? Thanks.
Reputation of a thousand years can be determined by the conduct of an hour
U.SivaKumar_2
Honored Contributor

Re: dns problem

Hi,

SERVFAIL message means there is some configuration problem in data files or named.conf of your DNS server.

Check the files first. Also enable debugging option in named daemon to find out the exact problem.

Does named process always runs or it dies ?
#ps -ef | grep named | grep -v named

I am asking this because you are saying that after restarting named , it works fine.

regards,
U.SivaKumar
Innovations are made when conventions are broken
Chris Dick
New Member

Re: dns problem

Michael,

Ok, thanks, but why are you trying to resolve mail.digitalmetal.com? The site's simply a web-mail interface. I'm just curious that's all, 'cause this forum was listed in a google.com inquiry, and I've had mail hacks before.

Chris
www.digitalmetal.com
Doug Morgan_2
New Member

Re: dns problem

Hi, I just found this form, and I have been having this same problem for over a year now.
I am running bind 9.1.0, and the domains that return SERVFAIL seem to change. It is not always the same domain, but after a restart of named, the domain that failed now is working.
When this does happen, other domains will still resolve, and named is running. As anyone found a answer to this yet?
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: dns problem

FYI

The domain in question is being properly seviced.

traceroute to mail.digitalmetal.com (209.15.2.80), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.1.10.1 (10.1.10.1) 2.154 ms 0.953 ms 0.933 ms
2 ntwhpop1.hosting4u.net (209.15.2.80) 1.240 ms 2.453 ms 1.123 ms


We are obviously outside your environment.

P
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
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