".US" domain not found?

[jlpeifer]

I'm transitioning a bunch of domains from an old DA server to a new one. All of the domains have ended in ".COM" except one which ends in ".US". I've followed the same procedure on all domains I've transferred. When I attempt to ping "peifer.us" from the outside, I get a "could not find host peifer.us".

I've updated the info at the registrar for the domain to point to my new name servers and believe I've waited the appropriate amount of time for the information to propogate, so that's not the issue.

When I use a tool like network-tools.com to do a DNS lookup, it returns an error "Attempt to get a DNS server for peifer.us failed"; however, when I use their "Advanced Tool" and specify the exact IP address of my name servers, it returns a full & correct DNS record.

Any ideas what I may be missing?

 

[floyd]

Evidently you did not wait long enough. Its pinging now.

 

[jlpeifer]

Well, I'm kinda getting to the bottom of this. Mind telling me if this makes sense....

I'm using dotster.com as my domain registrar. I used their "Register Name Server" option for my domain IQonQ.com to register the IP addresses of ns3.iqonq.com and ns4.iqonq.com. Now from my understanding, after registering a name server with them a glue record should be created by them to publish the IP addresses of ns3 and ns4 to the world.

The above process was performed about 4 or 5 days ago, so there should have been plenty of time for those nameservers to propagate.

However, when I run a check of my domain at http://www.webdnstools.com/dnstools/domain_check, I see that there are only two glue records set for my domain... ns1 and ns2.

To get around this issue (temporarily) I've gone into the DNS management of my the DA server that's hosting iqonq.com and added A records for ns3 and ns4 so that at least SOMETHING is resolving those IP addresses correctly.

I feel that this is a band-aid solution because if the server hosting ns1 and ns2 every goes down, then there'll be nothing in the Internet world resolving IP addresses for ns3 and ns4.

So I guess my question in all of this is... Knowing that I registered my nameservers via Dotster's web interface, and knowing that these nameservers aren't showing up as Name Server Glue, is my issue with Dotster? Do I need to be harping on them to add glue records for these two new nameservers?

 

[floyd]

Well, I'm kinda getting to the bottom of this. Mind telling me if this makes sense....

I'm using dotster.com as my domain registrar. I used their "Register Name Server" option for my domain IQonQ.com to register the IP addresses of ns3.iqonq.com and ns4.iqonq.com. Now from my understanding, after registering a name server with them a glue record should be created by them

No. Glue is created by you on your nameserver.

to publish the IP addresses of ns3 and ns4 to the world.

The above process was performed about 4 or 5 days ago, so there should have been plenty of time for those nameservers to propagate.

And they are registered.
http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=NS3.IQONQ.COM&type=nameserver
http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=NS4.IQONQ.COM&type=nameserver

However, when I run a check of my domain at http://www.webdnstools.com/dnstools/domain_check, I see that there are only two glue records set for my domain... ns1 and ns2.

Actually it says there are no glue records.

To get around this issue (temporarily) I've gone into the DNS management of my the DA server that's hosting iqonq.com and added A records for ns3 and ns4 so that at least SOMETHING is resolving those IP addresses correctly.

You pointed the domain to ns3 and ns4 so you need to have A records for ns3 and ns4 for glue on your nameservers.

I feel that this is a band-aid solution because if the server hosting ns1 and ns2 every goes down, then there'll be nothing in the Internet world resolving IP addresses for ns3 and ns4.

ns1 and ns2 are not a factor since you did not point the domain to them.

Are you talking about 1 server or 2 different servers with the zone record for peifer.us?

So I guess my question in all of this is... Knowing that I registered my nameservers via Dotster's web interface, and knowing that these nameservers aren't showing up as Name Server Glue, is my issue with Dotster? Do I need to be harping on them to add glue records for these two new nameservers?

Glue is created by you on your nameserver.

 

[jlpeifer]

Putting all things aside except the glue record issue... what I'm reading is that glue records are set by the registrar. Here's what a popular DNS provider has to say about glue records... "If you wish to provide DNS for your own domain using a DNS server application such as BIND, you can create glue records ... by contacting your registrar to request glue records. " I used Dotster's "Register Name Server" function to register the ns3.iqonq.com and ns4.iqonq.com name servers, so I expect that their system should automagically create a glue records accordingly. I'm just sayin'.... Am I misled?

 

[floyd]

Putting all things aside except the glue record issue... what I'm reading is that glue records are set by the registrar. Here's what a popular DNS provider has to say about glue records... "If you wish to provide DNS for your own domain using a DNS server application such as BIND, you can create glue records ... by contacting your registrar to request glue records. "

That is true if you are using the registrar's nameservers. But I am reading from you that you are using your own nameservers, ns3.iqonq.com and ns4.iqonq.com.

 

[floyd]

Apparently I am confused on terminology. I really only know what needs to be done regardless of what terms are used.

You have to register nameservers at the registrar. This puts them in the registry so that other servers know where to look for information about your domain.

You also have to create A records in your zone file for the nameservers you registered at the registrar.

Maybe the terminology makes it confusing.

Its really just 2 steps, register the nameservers and then create the A records.

The thread started with a problem with peifer.us which works. So I don't know what problem we are discussing now.

 

[floyd]

intodns.com might help you more.

http://www.intodns.com/peifer.us

 

[nobaloney]

I've gotten this far in life always thinking that glue was what you got when your registrar set up a records for your nameservers at the root servers. But I wasn't sure. I just called a gent I know who runs a registry. He explained it to my satisfaction but I decided I wanted references. I looked it up in Wikipedia, which explains the problem correctly, but then says you can solve the problem by setting up an a record in your own domain. That didn't make sense to me, based on their own example.

The best example I've found appears to be in the book Pro DNS and Bind; search the resulting page for glue.

For a domain the glue record is created when you register a nameserver (sometimes called a host) at your registrar), for a subdomain it's the A record you put in your zone file for the main domain.

Don't forget you need both A and NS records for your nameservers for your domains and subdomains. If they're domains then you need both at the registrar (the NS records are created when you register a domain, the A records when you register the nameservers), if they're subdomains then youu need both in the zone file for the main domain.

Jeff

 

[jlpeifer]

Well I'd like to thank both Floyd and jlasman for their input on this. In the end I believe this issue was the result of an I.D.10-T (idiot) error on my part. I'll be the first to admin that DNS issues are a more than a bit perplexing to me. I'm working through it though, starting with this little gem from the DA folks about setting up multi-server DNS clustering (http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=97). Over the weekend I'll kill DNS on Server1 and see if Server2 picks up cleanly where Server1 left off. Seems it should.

Anyway, thanks again.

(red faced)
Joe

 

[suhailc]

Over the weekend I'll kill DNS on Server1 and see if Server2 picks up cleanly where Server1 left off. Seems it should.

Anyway, thanks again.

(red faced)
Joe

Hi,

I'll just add that make sure it does by counting the number of domain records under /var/named on both Server1 and Server2 before switching off Server1, and testing that a few domains are being answered authoratatively on Server2.

 

[nobaloney]

There's a very common misunderstanding floating around the 'net; slave DNS is NOT the same as backup DNS. In fact that's why years ago the DNS folk got together and agreed that the proper terms were master/slave and not primary/secondary.

All your DNS servers get queried each time anyone asks for DNS. The local desktop simply takes the first reply it gets, and uses that.

And your test, depending on how you do it, may be fairly worthless, as your local system doesn't get it's reply from your DNS servers, it gets them from the servers listed in it's own list of resolving nameservers. Those nameservers (almost always provided by the user's ISP) get them from your nameservers if it doesn't have them, then keeps them in their cache for the time specified in the TTL field(s) in your zone file.

The definitive test should work within a minute or two after you make the additions of the slave nameserver, from the command line:

From Linux or Mac:

$ dig @ns1.example.com test.example.net

and

$ dig @ns2.example.com test.example.net

where ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com are replaced by the nameserver you're testing, and where test.example.net is replaced by the domain name you're testing.

On Windows:

> nslookkup
server ns1.example.com
test.example.net
server ns2.example.com
test.example.net
exit

with the same substitutions as above.

Note the test does NOT depend on whether or not either server is or isn't working as long as you've set up your authoritative servers to not either cache or resolve recursively.

Also note that I don't use Windows; I'm going by memory, but I believe the test above is correct.

Jeff