I am setting up a Red Hat Linux DNS server sitting on DMZ network. Mu goal is to
have it work as a local DNS cache server to reduce outboubd network traffic. Also,
I think our ISP's DNS servers are not very effcient.
Below is my test results. Could somebody tell me what's wrong with my setup by
looking at results? Thanks.

On both DNS server and client:
( www is on 10.0.0.x DMZ network, pecap1 is on 192.168.0.x Intranet )

dig www.mydomain.com -> 10.0.0.9
dig www -> connection time out, no server could be reached
dig -x 10.0.0.10 -> pec80.mydomain.com
dig -x 192.168.0.11 -> pecap1.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.
dig pecap1 -> connection time out. No server could be reached.
dig pecap1.mydomain.com -> Status: NXDOMAIN

nslookup>www -> name: www.mydomain.com
address: 10.0.0.9

>www.mydomain.com -> name: www.mydomain.com
address: 10.0.0.9

>192.168.0.11 -> 11.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa
name: pecap1.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa

>pecap1 -> connection time out. No server could be reached

>pecap1.mydomain.com -> server can't find pecap1.mydomain.com: NXDOMAIN

If you are trying to set up a dns lookup server, all I had to do was turn on the "named" service on my RH9 server and that is what I am using for dns lookups at my house instead of the cox dns servers. It worked for me.

Hope it helps.

-Derek

The /etc/resolver.conf file on your Redhat DNS server contains the instructions on how to find answers to DNS queries.

Your /etc/resolver.conf should contain at minimum the following two lines:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver <your_isp_dns_server>

The first line is your localhost address for the server machine, on which this file resides.
The second line points to your ISP DNS server(s).
Your local network PCs should then point to the server machine for DNS, so it can do the caching.

I'm assuming you've already setup a caching DNS server on the server machine. If not, that is the next step before it will work! One thing to check for in the /etc/named.conf file is to have these lines in the options section.
options {
directory "/var/named";
forward first;
forwarders {
207.209.1.1;
207.209.10.1;
};
};

where 207.201.1.1 and 207.201.10.1 are your ISP DNS servers. This forwards any DNS queries not resolved in your local cache to them. The directory, obviously, should be the one you used for your setup.

One thing looks like a routing issue. Since it is only going to be used as a local caching server then why put it in a DMZ. Keep it in your same subnet.

Brian1
" Google the Linux way @ http://www.google.com/linux "