Hello everyone:

I am replacing an exchange/DHCP/DNS server with an ubuntu zimbra machine. I am having a hard time setting up the configuration files in Bind and am getting really slow webpage lookups and reverse DNS failures. Here are my configuration files:

named.conf.local

# This is the zone definition. replace example.com with your domain name
zone "robandsarah.net" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/robandsarah.net.db";
};

# This is the zone definition for reverse DNS. replace 0.168.192 with your network address in reverse notation - e.g my network address is 192.168.0
zone "0.0.10.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/rev.0.0.10.in-addr.arpa";
};

//
// Do any local configuration here
//

// Consider adding the 1918 zones here, if they are not used in your
// organization
//include "/etc/bind/zones.rfc1918";

named.conf.options

options {
directory "/var/cache/bind";

// If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
// to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source
// directive below. Previous versions of BIND always asked
// questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 and later use an unprivileged
// port by default.

query-source address * port 53;

// If your ISP provided one or more IP addresses for stable
// nameservers, you probably want to use them as forwarders.
// Uncomment the following block, and insert the addresses replacing
// the all-0's placeholder.

forward first; forwarders {
10.0.0.1;

};

//auth-nxdomain no; //# conform to RFC1035
//listen-on-v6 { any; };
};


robandsarah.net.db

;
; BIND data file for robandsarah.net
;
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA mail.robandsarah.net. admin.robandsarah.net. (
070727 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@ IN NS 10.0.0.15
IN MX 10.0.0.15
IN A 10.0.0.15
server IN A 10.0.0.15

rev.0.0.10.in-addr.arpa

//replace example.com with yoour domain name, ns1 with your DNS server name.
// The number before IN PTR example.com is the machine address of the DNS server. in my case, it's 1, as my IP address is 192.168.0.1.
@ IN SOA server.robandsarah.net. admin.robandsarah.net. (
2006081402; Serial
28800;
604800;
604800;
86400
)

IN NS server.robandsarah.net
15 IN PTR server.robandsarah.net



I know there are some errors here but I have been chasing my tail for a couple of days. Can someone please help me get this cleaned up? When I do a host 10.0.0.15 in terminal I get a servfail error and dig -x times out.

Thanks in advance for the help!

You have some errors in your config
First you don't need the following
It's better for security reasons to use random source ports and of course you don't need forwarders since you're trying to setup an aithoritative nameserver.

The zone files also contain errors. In the forward zone you should use FQDNs for the MX and NS RRs:
In the reverse zone you miss the trailing dots:
Don't forget to increase the serial and reload bind

Regards

Ok, I fixed the above. Here is the readout from dig -x now:

rob@server:~$ dig -x robandsarah.net

; <<>> DiG 9.9.3-P1 <<>> -x robandsarah.net
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 45006
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;net.robandsarah.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN SOA b.in-addr-servers.arpa. nstld.iana.org. 2011028653 1800 900 604800 3600

;; Query time: 918 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.15#53(10.0.0.15)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 11 15:22:00 PDT 2013
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 125

I get a different readout when I dig -x 10.0.0.15

rob@server:~$ dig -x 10.0.0.15

; <<>> DiG 9.9.3-P1 <<>> -x 10.0.0.15
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 37813
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;15.0.0.10.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.15#53(10.0.0.15)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 11 15:36:52 PDT 2013
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 51

And when I dig -x 127.0.0.1

rob@server:~$ dig -x 127.0.0.1

; <<>> DiG 9.9.3-P1 <<>> -x 127.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64541
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN PTR localhost.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
127.in-addr.arpa. 604800 IN NS localhost.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
localhost. 604800 IN A 127.0.0.1
localhost. 604800 IN AAAA ::1

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.15#53(10.0.0.15)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 11 15:37:18 PDT 2013
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 132



And from host 10.0.0.15 in termianl:


rob@server:~$ host 10.0.0.15
Host 15.0.0.10.in-addr.arpa not found: 2(SERVFAIL)




Obviously I'm getting more info out of dig, but still nothing when I try the host 10.0.0.15. Is this to be expected or do I need to make some other changes? I am still getting slow webpage loads and timeouts.

That's wrong. You don't use -x for forward lookups. Use:
You get a SERVFAIL, meaning there is some error(s) in your configuration.
Post here the new reverse zone file, using CODE tags for readability.
You can also check the reverse zone for errors using:
Regards