On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Tim Cutts wrote:
> 16:43 mole:~> nslookup -querytype=mx mail.zoo.co.uk
> Server: mole.bio.cam.ac.uk
> Address: 131.111.36.9
>
> *** mole.bio.cam.ac.uk can't find mail.zoo.co.uk: Server failed
>
> which took a long time to appear (some sort of time out, I suppose). I'm
> not much of a DNS expert, so:
>
> a) Could this be responsible for the error message that exim is
> generating and if so,
Yes. It's looking for the MX record and failing in this way.
> b) Whose fault is it likely to be?
The maintainer of the nameservers for zoo.co.uk. They seem to be broken:
ursa$ dig @NS0.ZOO.NET.UK. mail.zoo.co.uk. mx
; <<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> @NS0.ZOO.NET.UK. mail.zoo.co.uk. mx
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 10
;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 0, Auth: 0, Addit: 0
;; QUESTIONS:
;; mail.zoo.co.uk, type = MX, class = IN
;; Total query time: 5167 msec
;; FROM: ursa.cus.cam.ac.uk to SERVER: NS0.ZOO.NET.UK. 194.216.59.2
;; WHEN: Mon Jan 12 16:56:35 1998
;; MSG SIZE sent: 32 rcvd: 32
Note that "SERVFAIL" status. However, it seems perfectly capable of
returning A records. I suspect some configuration shambles, or maybe
bugs in the actual zone file. I have once before seen another DNS server
in the same state, but never discovered what actually caused it.
The other one seems to be totally dead:
ursa$ dig @NS1.ZOO.NET.UK. mail.zoo.co.uk. mx
; <<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> @NS1.ZOO.NET.UK. mail.zoo.co.uk. mx
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; res_send to server NS1.ZOO.NET.UK. 194.216.59.3: Connection timed out
ursa$
There is some tie up between zoo.co.uk and zoo.net.uk; something has got
confused, I suspect. One can do an entire DNS zone
transfer for the zoo.co.uk zone, and all looks well in there, with no MX
record but just an A record for mail.zoo.co.uk.
Ha! As I write, it seems to be working again...
--
Philip Hazel University Computing Service,
ph10@??? New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
P.Hazel@??? England. Phone: +44 1223 334714
--
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http://www.exim.org/ ***
