PowerDNS / PowerAdmin - both installed fine but fail to work as desired
 

Started with Ubuntu 11.10 with SSH and DNS/bind9 (installed without err)

Then installed powerdns & poweradmin as per http://www.howtoforge.com/installing...on-ubuntu-8.10
(installed and configured without err)

The problem is after adding all the zone information in the MySQL(backend) thru PowerAdmin (verified info in MySQL), the server fails to query the backend, it continues as if powerdns had never been installed. All queries continue outbound to Internet root servers.

I'm almost certain that it is a simple oversight but can't seem to find the checklist that covers troubleshooting each step - all lists only show installation/basic configs.

Any help appreciated - thanks in advance
-Rudy

Hello,

Maybe dumb question, but why would you install both bind and PDNS since both do the same? If you use PowerDNS then you don't need bind. I'd check if having the two doesn't generate conflicts between one and the other. Or did you configure the same settings for both applications too?

Kind regards,

Eric

Good question...

After many (re)installs, it only seems to work if bind was first installed.

With a clean install (no bind) the PowerDNS/PowerAdmin installed but the DNS service was never alive. PowerDNS was never able to respond on it's own.... Should it have?

Just issued:
/etc/init.d/bind9 stop
/etc/init.d/pdns restart
now netstat -uap shows: *:domain for PID/Program=5528/pdns_server-in
but neither dig nor nslookup return anything
only ";; connection timed out; no servers could be reached;"
-r

Hi,

Then I'd go over your PDNS configuration, I'm sure you've missed something. I'm one of two system administrators on a global content delivery network and we only use PowerDNS, there's no bind involved whatsoever, and it works like a charm.

Kind regards,

Eric

just removed bind9 and rebooted. No luck :(

Here is a brief of the /etc/powerdns/pdns.conf (no cut & paste so disregard any typos)
allow-recursion=127.0.0.1
allow-recursion-override=on
chroot=/var/spool/powerdns
config-dir=/etc/powerdns
deamon=yes
disable-axfr=yes
disable-tcp=yes
guardian=yes
launch=gmysql
lazy-recursion=yes
local-address=0.0.0.0
local-port=53
module-dir=/usr/lib/powerdns
setgid=pdns
setuid=pdns
socket-dir=/var/run
webserver=yes
webserver-port=8081
version-string=powerdns
include=/etc/powerdns/pdns.d

-r

What's in /etc/resolv.conf?

the system is currently down.
But it was untouched, as per installation instructions.
It would only have whatever Ubuntu, DHCP, bind9, or PowerDNS put there.
-r

Well, check next time the server comes up. Could be a non existent nameserver
And you can check with

";; connection timed out; no servers could be reached;"
-r

If the server is up and running, but "it couldn't be reached", it could be a mysql connectivity problem.
Check the logs under /var/log, to see if you find anything relevant

following same instructions this worked flawlessly on 64bit (failed on 32bit)
will have to do a tandem re-install on both to see when/where/why they differ

thanks for the posts
will post final outcome after tests and then close as solved

but you may consider this "solved" (without exact details) for now...

Have narrowed the problem a lot:
The problem surfaces from plain Ubuntu 11.10 i386 server install and only adding pdns-server.

Have tried:
1. aptitude update & aptitude upgrade
2. fails on AMD and Intel processors
3. dig. works from ISP nameservers, fails from 127.0.0.1 and DHCP obtained IP, even after modifying resolv.conf to match local IP.
4. there is a message that comes up at first boot (hard to see, it goes by so fast) that shows [Fails]. not sure where to look to review that startup log (may be helpful.)
5. tried two different ISO's on 5 different systems, all failed (only the 64bit system work)

Not sure how to continue the search - not really sure if it's even worth it - how many ppl are gonna run pdns on x86?

-R