Question

DNS records have suffix added automatically

Asked by: dxbit

Hi,

Having a slight hassle with our DNS server (DNS running on windows server 2003 in active directory integrated mode). When i do nslookup on it for a host 'A' on my network with just the host name it gives me the right IP for A.domain.com; but when i do nslookup on it for the same host while typing the domain name along with it (A.domain.com), it adds an additional domain.com at the end. Then it tries to resolve A.domain.com.domain.com and can't find it and gives me some IP address from my service provider! I dont know if this is a normal thing, but it's hampering with some network access where we have defined the entire fqdn (A.domain.com)

My requirement would be that whether A.domain.com or just 'A' is typed in the nslookup, it should resolve to the IP of 'A'.

Any clues? Thanks.

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Asked On
2009-08-16 at 03:11:27ID24656116
Tags

DNS. Microsoft Windows 2003

Topics

Domain Name Service (DNS)

,

Windows 2003 Server

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
17

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Answers

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-16 at 03:14:56ID: 25108432

Check the DNS suffix on the computers TCP/IP settigs under advanced.  Make sure it matches your domain name.

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-16 at 03:19:24ID: 25108445

Also check your reverse lookup zones are configured correctly as this is what nslookup will use.

 

by: henjoh09Posted on 2009-08-16 at 04:10:48ID: 25108547

Check for a record named '*' in the DNS zone and remove it.

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-08-16 at 22:46:05ID: 25111846

demazter : I checked the DNS suffix on the clients, it is the same as my domain name. also i have checked the reverse lookup zones. There is one configured for every subnet including my server farm subnet.

henjoh09 : i checked my 'domain.com' zone and could not find any record '*'. When i do a filter for that record, i get many '(Same as parent folder)' records which are of 'Name Server' type and point to my domain controllers and then two DNS servers of our ISP. I assume it's getting this from the Name servers tab in the properties on the zone. Also there are two more '(Same as parent folder)' records in the filter result and those are 'Start of Authority' and 'WINS lookup' type.

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-16 at 22:51:14ID: 25111859

The name servers tab should contain only your servers IP the ISP's servers should be on the forwarders tab.
This could be causing your problem

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-16 at 22:52:28ID: 25111867

If you have any other internal DNS servers they should also be entered in the name servers tab.

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-08-17 at 03:22:33ID: 25112877

I noted down and deleted the ISP records from the name servers tab on the zone properties and made sure it's replicated to all other DNS servers. Still nothing positive.

Again when i do a nslookup to the server with A.domain.com, it adds a domain.com at the end automatically and returns a non-authorative answer for A.domain.com.domain.com with some IP from my service provider.

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-08-17 at 03:23:46ID: 25112882

you will need to perform an IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS on the clients.

 

by: DrDave242Posted on 2009-08-17 at 09:10:22ID: 25115828

Part of this behavior is normal - nslookup will always append your DNS suffix to its initial query, regardless of whether your query contains just a hostname or an FQDN.  This results in ugly-looking queries like "www.google.com.mydomain.local."  What's not normal is the response you're getting.  Your server should be giving an NXDOMAIN (no such domain) response to the initial (ugly) query, followed by some sort of authoritative response to the second (correctly formed) query (which can also be an NXDOMAIN response if you're querying for a hostname that doesn't exist in your domain).  That should be the end of it, though; your ISP shouldn't be involved at all, since you're looking for a host in your own domain.  Instead, it appears that your server is forwarding the query to your ISP instead of giving that authoritative response.  If you don't mind, run nslookup, type "set d2" to go into verbose debug mode, and run your query again.  Then post the results here, blanking out any information you don't want public.

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-08-17 at 22:52:22ID: 25120373

Thanks Demazter, i did flushdns on the client and also cleared cache on the DNS server, but again nothing positive.

Thanks DrDave242, here the results of the steps you mentioned. I did nslooukp, 'set d2', then did a query for the host A only and then did a query for the host as A.domain.com and here's the output :


C:\Documents and Settings\username>nslookup
Default Server:  DNSServer.domain.com
Address:  XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
> set d2
> A
Server:  DNSServer.domain.com
Address:  XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
------------
SendRequest(), len 36
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 2, rcode = NOERROR
       header flags:  query, want recursion
       questions = 1,  answers = 0,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
------------
------------
Got answer (78 bytes):
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 2, rcode = NOERROR
       header flags:  response, auth. answer, want recursion, recursion avail.
       questions = 1,  answers = 2,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
   ANSWERS:
   ->  A.domain.com
       type = CNAME, class = IN, dlen = 14
       canonical name = OWAServer.domain.com
       ttl = 3600 (1 hour)
   ->  OWAServer.domain.com
       type = A, class = IN, dlen = 4
       internet address = XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX (my comment: internal IP of the server)
       ttl = 1200 (20 mins)
------------
Name:    OWAServer.domain.com
Address:  XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX (my comment: internal IP of the server)
Aliases:  A.domain.com


> A.domain.com

Server:  DNSServer.domain.com
Address:  XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
------------
SendRequest(), len 48
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 3, rcode = NOERROR
       header flags:  query, want recursion
       questions = 1,  answers = 0,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
------------
------------
Got answer (115 bytes):
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 3, rcode = NXDOMAIN
       header flags:  response, auth. answer, want recursion, recursion avail.
       questions = 1,  answers = 0,  authority records = 1,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
   AUTHORITY RECORDS:
   ->  domain.com
       type = SOA, class = IN, dlen = 44
       ttl = 3600 (1 hour)
       primary name server = DNSServer.domain.com
       responsible mail addr = netgroup.domain.com (my comment: I dont know what this is, put there by previous admin maybe)
       serial  = 140046
       refresh = 900 (15 mins)
       retry   = 600 (10 mins)
       expire  = 604800 (7 days)
       default TTL = 900 (15 mins)
------------
------------
SendRequest(), len 43
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 4, rcode = NOERROR
       header flags:  query, want recursion
       questions = 1,  answers = 0,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
------------
------------
Got answer (59 bytes):
   HEADER:
       opcode = QUERY, id = 4, rcode = NOERROR
       header flags:  response, want recursion, recursion avail.
       questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 0,  additional = 0
    QUESTIONS:
       A.domain.com.domain.com, type = A, class = IN
   ANSWERS:
   ->  A.domain.com.domain.com
       type = A, class = IN, dlen = 4
       internet address = XXX.XXX.XXX.XX (my comment: some internet IP of our service provider)
       ttl = 555 (9 mins 15 secs)
------------
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    A.domain.com.domain.com
Address:  XXX.XXX.XXX.XX (my comment: some internet IP of our service provider)
 

 

 

by: DrDave242Posted on 2009-08-18 at 09:04:52ID: 25124664

Did you run nslookup from the server itself or from a client?  The reason I ask is that it appears that the problem may be with the resolver (client) rather than the server.  The nslookup output shows exactly what it should for the hostname-only query.  For the FQDN query, however, it shows the resolver sending the query with the extra suffix appended and the server responding with NXDOMAIN and the SOA record for the domain (normal behavior, and that's what "netgroup.domain.com" refers to - it's the e-mail address in the domain's SOA record, with the @ sign changed to a dot).  Everything's OK so far, but then the resolver submits a second query, again with the additional suffix appended.  This isn't normal; the second query should have that additional suffix stripped out.

Do you get the same results when you run nslookup directly on the server or from a different client?

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-09-16 at 06:07:31ID: 25345134

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier.. Am on a short leave for personal reasons. What i had typed was from a client. Will try from the server directly and let you know after some days.

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-10-06 at 00:04:48ID: 25502405

I tried from the server some time back and again it gives me the same output as before.

Also found out two additional things:

1) When i do nslookup on the server or client on the domain , and type the FQDN of any host (A.domain.com), it adds an additional domain name at the end and give me a non authorative answer. But if i type A.domain.com. (the root dot at the end) it gives me the actual IP.

2) When i ping A.domain.com (fqdn), from DNS server or any client it resolves it properly.. but when i do nslookup it adds that additional domain name and gives me that problem.

 

by: DrDave242Posted on 2009-10-29 at 08:17:06ID: 25694622

I have to admit, this one's got me baffled.  I believe you mentioned earlier that you have other DNS servers in your domain.  If you run nslookup against a different server, do you get the same results?  Also, if you run "ipconfig /all" on the client, is there anything unusual in the DNS suffix search list?

 

by: dxbitPosted on 2009-11-08 at 22:58:38ID: 25773833

Yes, it's the same case no matter which DNS server i do NSLOOKUP to.. In the Primary DNS Suffix and DNS suffix search list of all clients, we have our domain name (domain.com) written.

 

by: DrDave242Posted on 2009-11-10 at 10:14:49ID: 25788059

After doing a little experimentation in a test environment, I'm starting to think this has more to do with nslookup's somewhat quirky behavior than a problem on the DNS server.  I was not aware until now that there are two different settings in nslookup that control whether or not it appends suffixes to unqualified queries before submitting them.  The "set [defname|nodefname]" command tells nslookup whether or not to append the primary DNS suffix to a single-label query, while the "set [search|nosearch]" command controls whether suffixes in the search list get appended to an unqualified multi-label query (e. g., a full DNS domain name without a trailing dot).  Both of these settings default to yes, as "set all" will show, which is why you get queries like a.domain.com.domain.com if you don't include the trailing dot.  Try "set nosearch" and re-run your query.  The output should look cleaner, at least.

That having been said, something odd is still happening on your side, and nslookup isn't giving enough output, even in d2 mode, to determine whether the fault lies with the client or the server.  Since it's happening with different clients and different servers, we still don't know.  I'm really interested in knowing where that ISP server's address is coming from, so try one other thing:  run the "set norecurse" command and run your query again.  This should keep your server from querying other servers if it can't resolve your query.  If you still get a response containing that ISP address, it's coming from somewhere on your server.  If that's the case, look through DNS carefully for any record containing that address.  If you don't get a response with that address, then it's probably a catch-all in your ISP's DNS and can be ignored for troubleshooting purposes.

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