4

I have a problem when trying to transfer a full zone from a PowerDNS server to a Bind9 one. The weird part is that there are several zones on the PowerDNS server which serves as a hidden master (with a MySQL backend) but only one zone is failing to be transfered to the Bind9 server.

The two servers are running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. With:

  • Bind9 version = 9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1
  • PowerDNS version = 4.0.0~alpha2-3build1

The Bind9 slave zone is configured like this:

zone "example.net" {
    type slave;
    file "/var/lib/bind/slaves/db.example.net";
    masters {
          10.0.0.1;
    };
};

And the DNS zone from PowerDNS is:

% sudo pdnsutil show-zone example.net
This is a Master zone
Last SOA serial number we notified: 2016050801 == 2016050801 (serial in the database)
Zone is not actively secured
Metadata items: None
No keys for zone 'example.net.'.

% sudo pdnsutil list-zone example.net
example.net.    10800   IN  MX  10 mx1.example.org.
example.net.    10800   IN  MX  50 mx2.example.org.
example.net.    10800   IN  NS  ns1.example.org.
example.net.    10800   IN  NS  ns2.example.org.
example.net.    86400   IN  SOA ns1.example.org. hostmaster.example.org. 2016050801 28800 7200 604800 86400
...

Note the difference between .net and .org in this output. And here is the PowerDNS output in the log while trying to provide the zone to Bind.

May  9 00:44:14 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' initiated by 10.0.0.2
May  9 00:44:14 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' allowed: client IP 10.0.0.2 is in allow-axfr-ips
May  9 00:44:14 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' failed: not authoritative

And the corresponding logs given by Bind.

May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: zone example.net/IN: refresh: unexpected rcode (REFUSED) from master 10.0.0.1#53 (source 0.0.0.0#0)
May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: zone example.net/IN: Transfer started.
May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: transfer of 'example.net/IN' from 10.0.0.1#53: connected using 10.0.0.2#55376
May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: transfer of 'example.net/IN' from 10.0.0.1#53: failed while receiving responses: NOTAUTH
May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: transfer of 'example.net/IN' from 10.0.0.1#53: Transfer status: NOTAUTH
May  9 00:44:14 rdns01 named[32973]: transfer of 'example.net/IN' from 10.0.0.1#53: Transfer completed: 0 messages, 0 records, 0 bytes, 0.004 secs (0 bytes/sec)

So Bind9 is saying that the server is not authoritative. That's weird. So lets use dig to make things a little bit clear.

% dig @10.0.0.1 example.net. SOA          

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> @10.0.0.1 example.net. SOA
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47002
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1680
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.net.           IN  SOA

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.net.        86400   IN  SOA ns1.example.org. hostmaster.example.org. 2016050801 28800 7200 604800 86400

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.1#53(10.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon May 09 00:53:51 CEST 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 104

Seems pretty authoritative to me. So after that I tried to do an AXFR with dig. And surprise it works...

% dig -t axfr example.net @10.0.0.1

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> -t axfr example.net @10.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
example.net.        86400   IN  SOA ns1.example.org. hostmaster.example.org. 2016050801 28800 7200 604800 86400
...
;; Query time: 73 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.1#53(10.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon May 09 00:56:42 CEST 2016
;; XFR size: 58 records (messages 3, bytes 1952)

I don't know where to look anymore.

Thanks for your help.

UPDATE:

Logs from a packet capture:

1   0.000000    10.0.0.2    10.0.0.1    DNS 82  Standard query 0xe0dd SOA example.net OPT
2   0.002902    10.0.0.1    10.0.0.2    DNS 82  Standard query response 0xe0dd Refused SOA example.net OPT
6   0.004506    10.0.0.2    10.0.0.1    DNS 97  Standard query 0x205c AXFR example.net
8   0.006432    10.0.0.1    10.0.0.2    DNS 97  Standard query response 0x205c Not authoritative AXFR example.net

PowerDNS logs from a successful manual AXFR:

May  9 08:19:51 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' initiated by 10.0.0.2
May  9 08:19:51 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' allowed: client IP 10.0.0.2 is in allow-axfr-ips
May  9 08:19:52 hdns01 pdns[40494]: AXFR of domain 'example.net.' to 10.0.0.2 finished

PowerDNS config file:

#################################
# allow-axfr-ips    Allow zonetransfers only to these subnets
#
allow-axfr-ips=127.0.0.0/8,::1,10.0.0.2

#################################
# also-notify   When notifying a domain, also notify these nameservers
#
also-notify=10.20.1.78,10.0.0.2

#################################
# daemon    Operate as a daemon
#
daemon=yes

#################################
# include-dir   Include *.conf files from this directory
#
# include-dir=
include-dir=/etc/powerdns/pdns.d

#################################
# launch    Which backends to launch and order to query them in
#
# launch=
launch=

#################################
# master    Act as a master
#
master=yes

#################################
# setgid    If set, change group id to this gid for more security
#
setgid=pdns

#################################
# setuid    If set, change user id to this uid for more security
#
setuid=pdns

And the MySQL backend config part inside the /etc/powerdns/pdns.d/ directory.

# MySQL Configuration
#
# Launch gmysql backend
launch+=gmysql

# gmysql parameters
gmysql-host=127.0.0.1
gmysql-port=
gmysql-dbname=pdns
gmysql-user=MYUSER
gmysql-password=MYPASSWORD
gmysql-dnssec=yes
# gmysql-socket=
18
  • 2
    Hmm. I see where it says that that 10.0.0.1 responded with NOTAUTH, but immediately before that it seems to be trying to do a refresh for that zone against 10.20.1.77. Any idea why that is? A packet capture may be helpful here.
    – Andrew B
    May 9, 2016 at 1:34
  • 1
    The last log line from PowerDNS looks weird to me. It seems to be saying that PowerDNS thinks it's not authoritative for the requested zone. Why is it saying that? Also, when you do the manual AXFR, are you doing that from the machine Bind runs on (10.0.0.2)? What does the PowerDNS logs look like for that transfer? May 9, 2016 at 4:58
  • 2
    @Respawner But that should be fine, there's no requirement to have nameservers which have names in the same zone. May 9, 2016 at 7:24
  • 3
    After reading the entire thing twice, I have two theories. (1) you are running into a weird bug, or (2) somewhere in the hiding of all your domain names etc. something has gone out of sync.
    – Habbie
    May 9, 2016 at 8:03
  • 2
    I strongly suggest posting real data. If you're not comfortable doing that on a public web forum, I suggest trying the #powerdns channel on irc.oftc.net, it's a smaller audience than here.
    – Habbie
    May 9, 2016 at 8:03

2 Answers 2

7

At my request the poster came into our #powerdns IRC channel, where we quickly figured out that there was actually a typo between the domain names on master and slave - hidden by the obfuscation that was done to ask the question here.

2
  • 4
    This is why we hate obfuscation in DNS Q&As. /me goes to look for a wall to bang his head against.
    – Andrew B
    May 9, 2016 at 23:32
  • +1 on banging my head because this thread is totally useless for other people running into a similar problem...
    – Jakke
    Sep 23, 2022 at 10:04
2

I'm guessing here, because you basically hid everything that was useful. Are you trying on purpose to make it hard to help you?

It looks like you have an example.net entry in your domains table, but under that domain_id in the records table, you put example.org records. pdnsutil check-all-zones (or pdnssec if you're on 3.x) will probably notice this for you.

2
  • Well I have used the check-zone command from pdnsutils. % sudo pdnsutil check-zone example.net Checked 57 records of 'example.net.', 0 errors, 0 warnings.
    – gmazoyer
    May 9, 2016 at 7:05
  • 2
    You were right. Obuscating things is bad, typo in the Bind9 config, fixed this and everything just works now. Thank you all for the help, the issue was me, not pdns or bind...
    – gmazoyer
    May 9, 2016 at 8:55

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