Why is DNS not working properly??

brassic_lint · August 11, 2008, 1:18pm

I have my system up and running and can browse the web no problem.

I am sat on a Windows Domain network (haven’t surrently got Domain Membership working though). For some reason, I cannot ping my domain server through the hostname server.mydomain.local, however I can ping the address 192.168.200.200. I have the Domain server (192.168.200.200) as my DNS server (the only server…)

Why is this not working? I can’t understand it! I have a good knowledge of setting up Windows servers and know it works properly…

bartlm · August 11, 2008, 1:29pm

Add the row

mdns off

to your /etc/hosts file.

This should fix it.

brassic_lint · August 11, 2008, 5:09pm

OK, have added that line (I have added it to the end of the file).

No joy, still cannot find the host!

Magic31 · August 11, 2008, 5:20pm

have you tried to see what results you get using nslookup and dig ?

whats the contents of /etc/resolv.conf? Is the 192.168.200.200 listed as first reference?

brassic_lint · August 11, 2008, 5:25pm

Output from nslookup:


brassiclin:/home/gareth # nslookup server.gcs.local
Server:         192.168.200.200
Address:        192.168.200.200#53

Name:   server.gcs.local
Address: 192.168.200.200

And Dig:


brassiclin:/home/gareth # dig server.gcs.local

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P1 <<>> server.gcs.local
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 14543
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;server.gcs.local.              IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
server.gcs.local.       3600    IN      A       192.168.200.200

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.200.200#53(192.168.200.200)
;; WHEN: Mon Aug 11 16:20:46 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 50

But Ping:


brassiclin:/home/gareth # ping server.gcs.local
ping: unknown host server.gcs.local


brassiclin:/home/gareth # more /etc/resolv.conf
### BEGIN INFO
#
#
### END INFO
#
nameserver 192.168.200.200

I just don’t get it…!

philipraets · August 11, 2008, 6:09pm

try adding these lines to resolv.conf:


domain gcs.local
search gcs.local

swerdna · August 11, 2008, 11:28pm

I’m a real newbie at DNS (not even that), but FWIW, have you got the item “wins” in the line “hosts” in nsswitch.conf?

Mine looks like this – allows me to ping things:

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns wins

brassic_lint · August 12, 2008, 10:06am

Tried all that and still nothing!!

I just can’t understand why I cannot ping anything by hostname on my local network… External is fine! The names obviously resolve OK as shown by my nslookup output above!

Could it be something to do with a firewall?

Magic31 · August 12, 2008, 11:35am

Been cracking my brain on this one… you seem to have set all there is to set.
You could install Wireshark to have a sniff whats happening with the packets…

brassic_lint · August 12, 2008, 12:36pm

Just tried disabling the firewall and still no joy…this is driving me crazy!

South_African_Librarian · August 12, 2008, 12:43pm

It can be also because of policies on the domain controller - that unauthenticated PC’s won’t receive any DNS information.

Magic31 · August 12, 2008, 1:17pm

hmm… please try one variation to the nslookup;

just enter nslookup
at the > enter server and enter.

What is the output?

lornix · August 12, 2008, 4:22pm

brassic lint wrote:

>
> Just tried disabling the firewall and still no joy…this is driving me
> crazy!
>
>

I have read (somewhere!) that the .local domain has something “special”
involved with it. No, I don’t recall what specifically.

Simply put, change your names so that they aren’t .local

Rename whatever hosts to xxx.site, or get a real domain for yourself
(dyndns.com has free dynamic domains available, other places do too)

Just a thought.

Loni

L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

brassic_lint · August 13, 2008, 9:47am


gareth@Vigor12:~> nslookup
> server
Default server: 192.168.200.200
Address: 192.168.200.200#53
Default server: 62.6.40.178
Address: 62.6.40.178#53

brassic_lint · August 13, 2008, 9:48am

I can recieve DNS replies through nslookup and for other domains, like google.com, just not anything local.

brassic_lint · August 13, 2008, 9:50am

I don’t think so, it’s just a standard domain name query… And OpenSUSE should handle it anyway, it can connect to a windows domain!

It is historical that it’s not on it’s own internet domain, we have hundreds (my company is an ISP!), And is a pretty big job to change.

bartlm · August 13, 2008, 10:32am

That thing concerning .local domains ist the one about multicast dns.
If you put mdns off in /etc/host.conf this point is solved.
So there has to be another problem.
Im also using a .local domain and everything is working fine since ive added the mdns off line.

jmangan · October 12, 2008, 12:13am

Hey, just dropped by in the hope of finding a solution because I have exactly the same problem. I am using my trusty Novell server (so no WINS or domain authenticaton to worry about) running DHCP and DNS. named is configured as authoritative for the local domain and forwards other queries to my ISP’s servers. This works for eveything else on my network apart from my newly built OpenSuse 11 box which can browse the web (all updates downloaded and installed) ping anything by IP address but cannot resolve local doamin names. I am using a xxx.local domain internally. nslookup find the DNS server and resoves the local deices successfully.

One of the oddest things I’ve seen . . . .

user · October 12, 2008, 12:47am

On Sat October 11 2008 05:16 pm, jmangan wrote:

>
> Hey, just dropped by in the hope of finding a solution because I have
> exactly the same problem. I am using my trusty Novell server (so no
> WINS or domain authenticaton to worry about) running DHCP and DNS. named
> is configured as authoritative for the local domain and forwards other
> queries to my ISP’s servers. This works for eveything else on my network
> apart from my newly built OpenSuse 11 box which can browse the web (all
> updates downloaded and installed) ping anything by IP address but cannot
> resolve local doamin names. I am using a xxx.local domain internally.
> nslookup find the DNS server and resoves the local deices successfully.
>
> One of the oddest things I’ve seen . . . .
>
>
jmangan;

Are your local zones static or dynamic? If dynamic they need to reside
in /var/lib/named/dyn (By default Bind runs in a chroot jail,
see:/usr/share/doc/packages/bind/README.SUSE)
Check your named.conf for syntax errors:
In a terminal window su to root and run “named-checkconf” [no quotes]; this
outputs syntax errors, if none exist there is no output.
check your zone files using “named-checkzone <zonename> <filename>”

See: man named-checkzone; named-checkconf for details. Look at some of the
material in /user/share/doc/packages/bind

–
P. V.
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum.

jmangan · October 12, 2008, 10:27am

PV maybe I didn’t explain myself clearly.

This is not a problem with the DNS server (which is not running on the Suse box). Every other device on my network picks up its configuration from DHCP and manages to resolve local and external names using the DNS server. The only box that doesn’t do this is the newly-built Suse box which does use the DNS server to resolve external addresses but will not resolve local devices either expressed as hostname or hostname.domain.local

From scratching around I thought it was worth looking in /etc/nsswitch.conf and I discovered in the hosts section that mdns_minimal [notfound=return] was placed before ‘dns’. From my understanding this would mean that dns would never be accessed (although external addresses must be found via DNS). I tried moving dns to the front of the queue but it didn’t make any difference.

Still puzzling.