I want to thank everyone for your prompt replies/"expert testimony".
I asked:
>>> Greetings, managers.
>>> ...My local DNS is on MS (Much Suspected) NT. I get the following output:
>>> broot@hadg# nslookup
>>> *** Can't find server name for address 10.8.1.51: Non-existent host/domain
>>> *** Default servers are not available
The simple answer is, the default configuration for DNS on NT is broken.
It is possible that the underscores in the DNS name contribute to the problem.
Many people also were kind enough to confirm that I set up the sun right....
# grep hosts /etc/nsswitch.conf
hosts: files dns
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
domain montefiore.org
nameserver 10.8.1.51
#
The best answers were:
<Dan.Anderson@dtn.com> sent a corrent NT configuration. His reply appears below after the =+=+=+=+=)
Stephen Harris <sweh@mpn.com>
>>> The guys doing your internal DNS need to have reverse lookups in the server
>>> for the 10.in-addr.arpa zone.
>>>
>>> Basically, your DNS is screwed for reverse lookups (IP -> host). This is
>>> a "bad thing" (tm) in general.
>>>
>>> NOW... it shouldn't stop you doing lookups; if you write a quick C or perl
>>> program to call gethostbyname then it should work it out correct (assuming
>>> /etc/nssswitch.conf has a line "hosts: files dns") but without a correct
>>> reverse lookup, the "nslookup" program will not work. /etc/hosts won't
>>> do the job here.
Adam Barclay <adam@cortexebusiness.com.au>
>>> nslookup is trying to do a lookup of the IP of the DNS itself,
>>> so just a hosts entry won't do. You need to make sure that the
>>> nameserver can reply with its own forward & reverse entries.
Chan Cao <chan_cao_us@yahoo.com>
>>>1. No reverse or IN-ADDR.ARPA record for the name servers
>>>2. Underscores in names are not conforming to RFC
Scott <mpm@mail.thefriend.com>
>>>I've messed with dns a bit and this problem showed up when i didn't have
>>>the reverse dns setup properly on my dns server. once i got that up and
>>>running properly, the problem went away.
<riks@wni.com>
>>>Make sure that the servers are configured to resolve the inverse
>>>addresses (e.g. 51.1.8.10.in-addr.arpa) and have the correct zone
>>>information. If the nameserver doesn't handle inverse addresses for
>>>itself or delegate to another server you will experience this type of rror.
>>>
>>>I seem to remember many NT boxes misconfigured this way a few years ago
>>>when I was working for an ISP. Most Unix admins I know recieved this
>>>lesson earlier and run scripts to generate the zones.
Dan Lowe <dan@tangledhelix.com>
>>>This is a well-known and longstanding bug in nslookup (on many platforms,
>>>not just on Solaris). If you have the ability to do so I would stop using
>>>nslookup and grab BIND from www.isc.org, which comes with "dig" and "host"
>>>which are both much better programs when dealing with DNS, and neither one
>>>of them suffer from this stupid reverse-DNS bug like nslookup does.
<matthew.hannigan@nl.abnamro.com>
>>>The underscores could be a problem.
>>>They're not valid characters in a DNS name.
"Mark_Neill@csx.com" <Mark_Neill@csx.com>
>>>...unless your MS DNS people are on the ball, I would guess that their
>>>reverse mappings are wrong - I have yet to see a MS DNS product that is easy
>>>enough for the typical NT admin to figure our reverse in-addr addressing.
<Dan.Anderson@dtn.com> gave all the details I needed....
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
While I can't comprehend anyone running a Windows DNS server....
You need to add reverse DNS (in-addr.arpa) records for your internal name
servers to allow nslookup to work. Try nslookup -d2 for better debugging
info.
These records need added to your internal nameserver. I am assumeing bind
8 for NT
In named.conf
zone "1.8.10.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "arpa-10.8.1.rev";
};
zone "1.20.10.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "arpa-10.20.1.rev";
};
In arpa-10.8.1.rev:
;
; 10.8.1.x Reverse Mapping
;
; Start of Authority
@ IN SOA ins1.inside.company.com. contact.company.com. (
2000110601 ; serial number
10800 ; refresh [3h]
3600 ; retry [1h]
2592000 ; expire [30d]
86400 ) ; minimum [1d]
; Nameserver entries
@ IN NS ins1.inside.company.com.
@ IN NS ins2.inside.company.com.
; Host Entries
51 IN PTR ins1.inside.company.com.
In arpa-10.20.1.rev:
;
; 10.20.1.x Reverse Mapping
;
; Start of Authority
@ IN SOA ins1.inside.company.com. contact.company.com. (
2000110601 ; serial number
10800 ; refresh [3h]
3600 ; retry [1h]
2592000 ; expire [30d]
86400 ) ; minimum [1d]
; Nameserver entries
@ IN NS ins1.inside.company.com.
@ IN NS ins2.inside.company.com.
; Host Entries
51 IN PTR ins2.inside.company.com.
Dan
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Thanks also to:
Gary Jenson <gjenson@spillman.com>
S
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