I've one RH6.2 that I'm running NAMED on as a name server responsible for the domain MYDOMAIN and it's name is SERVER.MYDOMAIN.

The proplem is as the following:

1.When I ping the domain MYDOMAIN from SERVER.MYDOMAIN it is OK.

2.When I ping the machine SERVER.MYDOMAIN from any host in the network it's OK.

3.When I ping the domain MYDOMAIN from any host in the network it gives me "unkown host".

* Note that I've checked the forward lookup files and they are OK.

* Note that before the problem has occured, when I type:
ps -ef | grep named
It displays the entry for NAMED process
But Now, after the problem, it doesn't show me any thing. But when I typed:
ps -ax | grep named
then it shows the NAMED process.

* Also Note that I've restart NAMED and reboot the machine butthe problem still there.

Uhm... you say it fails when you ping 'MYDOMAIN' which you'd expect as the domain itself does't have an IP address? Your attempting to just ping someDomain.net yeah? Not a specific machine? Post your bind config files if you want....

I'm a bit confused!

Jamie...

What I meant is as follows.
SERVER.MYDOMAIN is the DNS server name that have an IP
zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz
MYDOMAIN is the domain that is served by SERVER.MYDOMAIN server.
Previously, when I ping MYDOMAIN (by its name), which is associated with IP zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz as an A resource record , it replies to me.

But now, although I can ping SERVER.MYDOMAIN but I when I ping MYDOMAIN it show me "unknown host".

Even if I ping the name of any other host(s1.MYDOMAIN, s2.MYDOMAIN) it shows "unknown host" excpet for SERVER.MYDOMAIN which replies for the ping.

You don't usually have an IP address associated with a domain itself, the domain is just used to create a logical group of machines so I really don't know how your DNS clients will be reacting to it...

If you're getting 'unknown host' errors on the other machines then it suggests that you have problems with your bind setup, post your files... Could you resolve the names of those machines in the past (s1, s2)? You say that you can ping MYDOMAIN when your on SERVER.MYDOMAIN - is it definately using DNS to get the IP address of MYDOMAIN (very odd this!!) or is it just doing a lookup in /etc/hosts. If the latter is happening then it would explain the difference in behaviour between your server and other machines on the network. You can change the lookup order in /etc/host.conf

cheers

Jamie...

However, you could use an A record in your zone file for MYDOMAIN that points to your server IP.

I beleive that the problem is in BIND. Because the forward lookup zone file is OK. but the problem is with Name Resoulution service for other hosts in the network that can not use the DNS Sever to resolve the names for them( A records).
Is there any way to check the DNS service and to reset BIND ???

With reference to my DNS problem.
Something strange about it.
That is although it's active and running, but it's still do not resolve the local network hosts names(i,e, anyhost.mydomain.....).
And when I type NSLOOKUP , it gives me the following!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Can't find server name for address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Non-existent host/domain
*** Default servers are not available
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How that comes???And how to solve it???


Also any one knows useful links about how to setup a DNS server in linux???

Post your config (for bind and your zone files) files and /etc/resolv.conf for us to look at...

Jamie...