DNS zone notification problem

[Irena]

I've got a problem with automatic notification of secondary servers
when zone changes.
I have primary (master) on Microsoft DNS and 2 secondaries name
servers (slaves) on BIND.
I have set "Automatically notify" "servers listed on the name servers
tab" radio button.
In the name servers tab consequently I have my 2 secondaries listed.

But the problems are:
1. When I look into Name Servers tab sometimes for one of these
servers appears "Unknown" for IP Address column. At the same time
there is no problem to resolve its name using nslookup (from both
inside and outside(internet)). After a while its IP is displayed there
correctly.
2. My main problem that my primary doesn't send notifications to
secondaries when the zone changes and serial number is incremented. On
the other hand, if I change "Automatically notify servers listed on
the name servers tab" radio button to "Automatically notify the
following servers" and specify IPs of my secondaries there then it
seems to be working.

I have hundreds of zones on my primary DNS server (with the same 2
secondaries) and this behavior happens for all of them.
I need an urgent advice how to get my secondaries to be notified.
Thanks,
Irena

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

In Irena <[email protected]>
posted their concerrns,
Then Kevin D4Dad added his reply at the bottom.

I've got a problem with automatic notification of secondary servers
when zone changes.
I have primary (master) on Microsoft DNS and 2 secondaries name
servers (slaves) on BIND.
I have set "Automatically notify" "servers listed on the name servers
tab" radio button.
In the name servers tab consequently I have my 2 secondaries listed.

But the problems are:
1. When I look into Name Servers tab sometimes for one of these
servers appears "Unknown" for IP Address column. At the same time
there is no problem to resolve its name using nslookup (from both
inside and outside(internet)). After a while its IP is displayed there
correctly.

Does your primary have "glue" for your secondary?
What that means is that it should be able to resolve the address of the
secondaries in its own name space.
You should have "A" host records for your name servers not just NS records,
The "A" record is its glue.

 

[Irena]

In Irena <[email protected]>
posted their concerrns,
Then Kevin D4Dad added his reply at the bottom.

Does your primary have "glue" for your secondary?
What that means is that it should be able to resolve the address of the
secondaries in its own name space.
You should have "A" host records for your name servers not just NS records,
The "A" record is its glue.

Hi,
My primary has no A records for secondary name servers for 2 reasons:
1. Their names are resolvable from any place in the world, including
by my primary.
2. It's not a right way to define A records in each zone file (we have
hundreds of zones). In this case if IP of one of the name servers
changes, then you should update all hundreds of zone files.
Thanks,
Irena

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

Hi,

I'll try to explain the situation more clearly.
You are right that the problem is resolution for secondary name
servers names. It doesn't happen all the time, but SOMETIMES when I
look into Name Servers tab I see there "Unknown" for IP Address column
for one of these servers, it's not always the same server that has
"Unknown" in different moments of time.

Why not just go into the nameserver tab and type in the actual fqdn and it's
IP address? Sometimes the GUI will not resolve. I've found that you have to
ping it or something, then while it's still in cache, go back in there and
hit the resolve button. But as Kevin said, it should be in there for any DNS
servers that will hold the zone(s).

At the same moment there is no
problem to resolve this servers' names using nslookup - querying my
primary server or Preferred DNS server that is defined in the TCP/IP
properties of adapter.
Do you know which server my DNS server queries in order to resolve my
secondaries server's names for zone notification process? Or might it
use some other service for this purpose?

P.S. Currently I have difficulties to define secondary zone for the
domain the secondary name servers are in, because their master doesn't
allow zone transfer to any server and it's not in my control.

Then you can manually create the zone and put in the pretanent RR records
you need. Otherwise, you'll have to contact the admin of the zone.

Besides, if this is an AD infrastructure, you;ll want to point to yourself
anyway and forward to them.


--
Regards,
Ace

Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory