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Centos Bind DNS Problem

I'm having trouble setting up the Bind DNS server on a Centos 5 machine (Bind 9).
I've so far followed a guide in "O'Reilly: DNS & BIND 4th ed", and done a bit of web trawling. What i've go looks ok to me, but the bottom line is that it does not work!

Bind installed with "yum install bind" - all went in ok.
The router forwards UDP port 53 to the server.
I've put what I think is correct into /etc/named.conf and /var/named/db.domainname.org.uk.
db.cache is also in that folder.

where domainname.org.uk is the domain that i'm trying to set up.

I've copied and pasted (and replaced the actual name with domainname) these 2 files below.

I'd much appreciate some expert advice!
Thanks in advance,
Phil.

Also, if it helps, i've tried nslookup from the server itself I get this:
nslookup domainame.org.uk returns:
Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53

and nslookup www.domainname.org.uk returns:
Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53

Name: www.domainname.org.uk
Address: 181.186.156.104
Name: www.domainame.org.uk
Address: 192.168.2.200

From any other machine either on the local network, or remote, nslookup fails.

named.conf as follows:
----------------------------
options {
	directory "/var/named";
	//Place additional options here
};
 
zone "domainname.org.uk" in {
	type master;
	file "db.domainname.org.uk.";
};
 
zone "." in {
	type hint;
	file "db.cache";
};
 
-------------------------------------------
db.domainname.org.uk. as follows:
-------------------------------------------
$TTL 3h
domainame.org.uk. IN SOA ns1.domainname.org.uk. root.domainname.org.uk. (
	1	; Serial
	3h	; Refresh after 3 hours
	1h	; Retry after 1 hour
	1w	; Expire after 1 week
	1h )	; Negative caching TTL of 1 day	 
 
 
;
; Name Servers
;
domainame.org.uk.	IN NS	ns1.domainame.org.uk.
domainame.org.uk	IN NS	ns2.domainame.org.uk.
 
;
; Host Addresses
;
localhost.domainame.org.uk.	IN A	127.0.0.1
www.domainame.org.uk.	IN A	181.186.156.104
www.domainame.org.uk.	IN A	192.168.2.200
;
; Aliases
;
phil.domainname.org.uk.	IN CNAME domainname.org.uk.

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omarfarid

did you create a reverse lookup domain for your server ip address?

What messages do you get when you start the named server?

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jar3817

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phil8258

ASKER

Thank you both for your help.
1) What is a reverse lookup domain? - I've not created one...
2) /etc/init.d/named restart produces:
Stopping named: [ OK ]
Starting named: [ OK ]
3) nslookup from another machine (a remote one) produces:
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
4) It seemed to accept the input of port 53 to the iptabes as you suggested, and restarted without any errors. But unfortunately, this does not seem to be the answer either (though i'm in no doubt was probably necessary).
Any other ideas?
Cheers,
Phil.

phil8258

ASKER

Actually,
I've just checked /sbin/iptables-save again and the line that should have added is not in there.
Is there an alternative way to add it?
Cheers,
Phil.

SOLUTION

omarfarid

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phil8258

ASKER

Hi omarfarid,
I've tried to follow that guide, two zones "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" and "2.168.192.in-addr.arpa"
Also created two new files in /var/named/: "named.local" and "domainname.org.uk.rev"
in the local files it seemed appropriate to use the name of the server in places, which is "volcano".
I've included the contents of the files, the error that I now get on starting the server is:
Error in named configuration:
zone 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa/IN: has no NS records
_default/0.0.127.in-addr.arpa/IN: bad zone
zone 2.168.192.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 1997022700
zone domainname.org.uk/IN: loaded serial 1
[ FAILED ]
What's wrong??
Cheers,
Phil.

named.local is as follows:
-------------------------
$TTL 3h
@	IN	SOA	volcano.localhost. root.volcano.localhost. (
		1997022700	; Serial
		28800		; Refresh
		14400		; Retry
		3600000		; Expire
		86400 )		; Minimum
IN	NS	volcano.localhost.
1	IN	PTR	localhost.
 
---------------------------------------
domainname.org.uk.rev is as follows:
---------------------------------------
 
$TTL 3h
@	IN	SOA	domainname.org.uk. root.domainame.org.uk. (
		1997022700	; Serial
		28800		; Refresh
		14400		; Retry
		3600000		; Expire
		86400 )		; Minimum
		IN	NS		domainname.org.uk.
1	IN	PTR	domainname.org.uk.
20	IN	PTR	phil.domainname.org.uk.
 
-----------------------------------
the modifications to named.conf are as follows:
-----------------------------------
 
//
// Declaring the reverse lookup zone
//
zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
 type master;
 file "named.local";
};
zone "2.168.192.in-addr.arpa"{
 notify no;
 type master;
 file "domainname.org.uk.rev";
};

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omarfarid

Where is the A record for volcano.localhost. in line below

IN NS volcano.localhost.

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jar3817

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Julian Parker

Have you read one of the online tutorials?
something like; http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/caching-dns-server/

phil8258

ASKER

Hi All,
I think I've got it now... Thanks!
It started working after I got the port 53 added to the /etc/config/iptables file.
Though all the tutorials suggest the 0.0.127-in-arpa stuff, I don't understand what these really do, and the thing continues to work for domain name > IP address resolution after I comment out line 35 - 43 in the last posting of named.conf. Is there a reason why I should have these??
Thanks all!

omarfarid

the named server when it runs it looks for the loop back address (127.0.0.1) reverse address and if it does not find it fails to start. So, please configure it as it is required.

phil8258

ASKER

I've managed it at last!!
named.local looking like the attached.
Only thing I've not got now is the reverse zone for domainname.org.uk - but it all seems just fine without it.
Cheers,
Phil.

;
;  Database file 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.dns for 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa zone.
;      Zone version:  1
;
 
@                       IN  SOA volcano.  hostmaster. (
                                1            ; serial number
                                900          ; refresh
                                600          ; retry
                                86400        ; expire
                                3600       ) ; default TTL
 
;
;  Zone NS records
;
 
@                       NS      volcano.
 
;
;  Zone records
;

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