Can't ping myself from server but all else 'seems' to work fine (BIND9)

**yt_l9** · November 24th, 2011

*Running 11.10 64-bit Ubuntu-Server*

I've been tasked with setting up an email server for a school project and have hit a snag, after searching for about a week and not being able to figure it out on my own... I've decided to come here for help.

The issue is simply that I can't resolve to my domain via ping from the server it's self whereas it works from other stations on the network- that and dig doesn't seem to recognize anything beyond my router but I'll save that for a late date.

I'm sure I'm just overlooking something really stupid but here goes:
/etc/bind/named.conf.local

Code:

        zone "UHMS.us" {
             type master;
             file "/etc/bind/db.UHMS.us";
        };

	zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
	        type master;
	        notify no;
	        file "/etc/bind/db.192";
	};

dig -x 127.0.0.1

Code:

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> -x 127.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16386
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; 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: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Wed Nov 23 23:00:09 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 121

db.UHMS.us

Code:

; BIND data file for local loopback interface
;
$TTL	604800
@	IN	SOA	server1.UHMS.us. root.UHMS.us. (
			      4		; Serial
			 604800		; Refresh
			  86400		; Retry
			2419200		; Expire
			 604800 )	; Negative Cache TTL
;
@	IN	NS	ns.UHMS.us.
ns	IN	A	192.168.1.100
mail	IN	A	192.168.1.100
@	IN	AAAA	::1
;
; MX Records
UHMS.us.	IN	MX	10	mail.UHMS.us.

db.192

Code:

; BIND reverse data file for local loopback interface
;
$TTL	604800
@	IN	SOA	localhost. root.localhost. (
			      3		; Serial
			 604800		; Refresh
			  86400		; Retry
			2419200		; Expire
			 604800 )	; Negative Cache TTL
;
@	IN	NS	ns.
100	IN	PTR	ns.UHMS.us.
100	IN	PTR	mail.UHMS.us.

and of course...
ping -c 3 google.com

Code:

64 bytes from yi-in-f99.1e100.net (74.125.159.99): icmp_req=1 ttl=51 time=38.7 ms
64 bytes from yi-in-f99.1e100.net (74.125.159.99): icmp_req=2 ttl=51 time=36.2 ms
64 bytes from yi-in-f99.1e100.net (74.125.159.99): icmp_req=3 ttl=51 time=37.3 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 36.248/37.434/38.719/1.011 ms

but, from the server, if I try to...
ping -c 3 UHMS.us, it leads to:

Code:

ping: unknown host UHMS.us

I don't think this should prevent me from setting up POSTFIX but just in case I'd like to get it all working properly. I'll be checking back frequently should anyone have a quick solution or be in need of more info.

If this helps any (dig from the server):

Code:

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> uhms.us
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 292
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;uhms.us.			IN	A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
uhms.us.		604800	IN	SOA	server1.uhms.us. root.uhms.us. 4 604800 86400 2419200 604800

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.100#53(192.168.1.100)
;; WHEN: Wed Nov 23 23:22:53 2011
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 74

Thank you in advance!

**Doug S** · November 24th, 2011

I will try to help, while also trying to respect forum policy to not to do one's school work for them. Your "ping UHMS.us" issue I think could be solved by a change to your db.UHMS.us file. I would try this for the SOA part:

Code:

@    IN    SOA    UHMS.us. root.UHMS.us. (
             4        ; Serial
             604800        ; Refresh
             86400        ; Retry
            2419200        ; Expire
             604800 )    ; Negative Cache TTL
       IN    A    192.168.1.100

and then declare server1.UHMS.us seperately as another "A" record.
I think your MX record is incorrect. See the example in the Ubuntu 11.10 server guide (I prefer the PDF version) (there are some good references in the DNS section of the server guide also).

Edit: I forgot to mention your db.192 file needs some work. There should only be 1 reverse entry per IP address. And I think the SOA should be something.UHMS.us related and not localhost related.

**yt_l9** · November 28th, 2011

Thank you! I'll try to change those shortly.

Not that it matters much but I wasn't looking for a "do my homework" as much as "what did I screw up this time" which you hopefully pointed out. =D

Just as a follow up, I followed your suggestions and re-read the guide... but it's still not resolving it's self. I swapped localhost to UHMS.us. root.UHMS.us within db.192 as well swapping out your suggestion for what I had in db.UHMS.us. I got the email server to work regardless of this, and class has finished, but it's kind of bothering me that it's not working as I had hoped. I want to teach myself about virtual machines, web hosting and a few other aspects of servers but I'm kind of hung up on this. - yes I increased the serial # and restarted BIND to no avail.

Any other ideas on what I might be messing up?

**yt_l9** · December 19th, 2012

Very much a late update here, but the problem was fixed by properly configuring the hosts file if I recall correctly. This was remedied quite some time ago but I forgot my login information (before I started using last-pass).