annoying domain.local issue

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Tue Apr 28 13:30:03 UTC 2009


Tim:
>> And does that DNS server have an answer for queries to that domain name?
>> If it does, does it have the right answer?

Valent Turkovic:
> ping doesn't work from Fedora;
> 
> # ping web.iskon.local
> ping: unknown host web.iskon.local
> 
> # ping samba.iskon.local
> ping: unknown host web.iskon.local

That would appear to suggest that you don't have anything to tell your
machine how to use those addresses.  No hosts file entries, no DNS
records.  Unless, you do have a DNS server with that information, but
you're querying another one that doesn't.

>> I'd suggest posting your hosts, nsswitch.conf, resolv.conf and smb.conf
>> files for others to see what you're doing, rather than guess.  Also the
>> outputs from running nslookup and dig with your problem domain name.

> Here is mine nsswitch.conf :
> http://fpaste.org/paste/10360

The important line from that is this:

hosts:      files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns

Which, if I've understood the bit in the middle does:
1. "files" first look in /etc/hosts, then try
2. "mdns4_minimal", and if no answer is found, abort
without getting around to querying a "DNS" server.

This doesn't seem sensible to me.

Unless you have something special, usually all that's needed is:

hosts:      files dns

If mdns4... is doing something useful for you, perhaps try just removing
the notfound=return section.

> hosts :
> http://fpaste.org/paste/10361

Pretty much a normal file.  It defines local loopback addresses (how the
machine refers to itself, the computer equivalent of "myself").  It's
expected that something else will resolve other addresses, such as your
DNS server.

> resolv.conf :
> http://fpaste.org/paste/10362

Again, looking normal, presuming that there are DNS servers you can
query at 10.0.0.6 and 10.0.0.7.


> $ dig web.domain.local
> 
> ; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P2-RedHat-9.5.1-2.P2.fc10 <<>> web.domain.local
> ;; global options:  printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 53744
> ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
> 
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;web.domain.local.		IN	A
> 
> ;; ANSWER SECTION:
> web.domain.local.	1200	IN	A	10.0.0.18
> 
> ;; Query time: 5 msec
> ;; SERVER: 10.0.0.6#53(10.0.0.6)
> ;; WHEN: Tue Apr 28 14:18:17 2009
> ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 49

This indicates that a DNS server at 10.0.0.6 says that web.domain.local
has a numerical IP address of 10.0.0.18.

> $ nslookup web.domain.local
> Server:		10.0.0.6
> Address:	10.0.0.6#53
> 
> Name:	web.domain.local
> Address: 10.0.0.18

Same as above, with the dig query.

> $ host 10.0.0.18
> 28.0.0.10.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer web.domain.local.

And again.

> But I can't ping web.domain.local :(

That could be a firewall issue, but you'd not expect a comment about
unknown host, if it simply couldn't ping something it had an address
for.

> And typing http://web.domain.local in Firefox doesn't open the web
> page, but typing IP it does. If I type 10.0.0.8 in Firefox I get the
> home page.

Check if both your domain servers can answer that query.  Use the dig
command, with the address for each name server.

e.g. dig web.domain.local @10.0.0.6
     and, dig web.domain.local @10.0.0.7

If they both get answers like above, then both domain name servers are
working.

> As I mentioned I also have Winwdows in VirtualBox VM and there
> everything works ok - ping works and also Firefox opens
> web.domain.local without problems.

Windows can muddy the waters, as it can try other things to try and
resolve names, as well.  Windows networking (SMB) for instance can find
machines without DNS or hostnames (essentially asking for a machine by
name, and hoping that it answers for itself, or another machine on the
SMB network gives it the address for it).


> When I enter in my hosts file this line:
> 10.0.0.18    web.domain.local
> 
> then I can ping the web server from my Fedora laptop... any ideas?

See if the comment I made about modifying your /etc/nsswitch.conf file
makes any difference.  Everything else, configuration-wise, seems
normal.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.






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