"named" sometimes points people to old locations

[schwim]

Hi there guys,

I've got a problem, and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Situation:

We moved a client's site over from another server to our server, and pointed their domain to our nameservers. Now, over one month after doing this we have the following problem: About 25%-50% of the site requests are getting routed to the old server. I've run traceroutes upon traceroutes, and they're all getting to my server. For some reason, my server is then sending them BACK to the old server. My domain host said this can happen when a nameserver is using an old cache of the names.

How do I fix this? The client is torqued, and I can't blame her, but I'm at a loss as to what I need to do to stop it from happening.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what causes me to need the named service running. Do I need it running if I'm simply running normal shared accounts on the server?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
json

 

[Spiral]

Yes, it is possible that the DNS on your server is misconfigured.

HOWEVER ...

It's equally possible that your client's computer or ISP has old stale
routing cache that isn't getting updated or a forced hosts entry
in which case, there is little you can do because the problem is
not on your end.

I would start the investigation at http://www.dnsreport.com
and see what it has to say about the domain in question.

Assuming all looks good there, the next thing I would check
is what IP numbers are actually assigned to your DNS servers
and you can check that at http://www.internic.org and use
their nameserver whois tool.

You can try running traceroutes to each of your DNS server names
and the domain in question and see what that turns up. Some
good network diagnostic tools are at http://www.dnstools.com


PS: Regarding your question, "named" is your DNS server ---
without it your clients can't connect because there would be no
way to resolve your domains to their numeric IP addresses

 

[schwim]

Thanks very much for your reply, and I think it helped me get closer to the problem.

I ran the search tool in the first link you provided, and got these results. Please notice that it shows:

INFO NS records at parent servers Your NS records at the parent servers are:

ns1.schwimsdns.com. [208.109.107.41] [TTL=172800] [US]
ns2.schwimsdns.com. [208.109.107.66] [TTL=172800] [US]
[These were obtained from f.gtld-servers.net]

INFO NS records at your nameservers Your NS records at your nameservers are:

ns26b.avahost.net. [66.98.248.226] [TTL=86400]
ns26a.avahost.net. [66.98.248.225] [TTL=86400]

and later:

Missing (stealth) nameservers FAIL: You have one or more missing (stealth) nameservers. The following nameserver(s) are listed (at your nameservers) as nameservers for your domain, but are not listed at the parent nameservers (therefore, they may or may not get used, depending on whether your DNS servers return them in the authority section for other requests, per RFC2181 5.4.1). You need to make sure that these stealth nameservers are working; if they are not responding, you may have serious problems! The DNS Report will not query these servers, so you need to be very careful that they are working properly.

ns26b.avahost.net.
ns26a.avahost.net.
This is listed as an ERROR because there are some cases where nasty problems can occur (if the TTLs vary from the NS records at the root servers and the NS records point to your own domain, for example).

Avahost is the old server it was hosted on. schwimsdns.com is the new server that it's supposed to be hosted on.

The problem is occuring regardless of the ISP, so I'm pretty sure that the problem lies with the fact that for some reason, my server is sending the requests to avahost.net, but only some of the time.

How do I get my server (schwimsdns.com) to stop pointing requests to the old server (avahost.net)?

The reason I asked about the named service being necessary, is because during setup, it kept asking if I was sure that I wanted it running that it was resource intensive.

thanks very much for taking the time to help me.
json

 

[MN-Robert]

This is an issue with cpanel. It appeared probably 2-3 weeks ago as we have it on some accounts that are parked at godaddy then create an account and the zone recorded created on the new account has godaddy's ns records. We need to manually change the zone to our records. Not sure why I've checked the zone templates and they look fine.

 

[MN-Robert]

Typical bug already in, not fixed:

http://bugzilla.cpanel.net/show_bug.cgi?id=4743

 

[schwim]

Thanks very much for your reply. I edited the zone file, and it had the old information in it, which I never thought to check since I had created the templates. Not very bright of me.

I changed them and when I run the DNS Reports test, it's now showing correctly, but when I view the site or connect via FTP, I'm still getting to the old site sometimes. I thought that since the change was being made at the final location, that any changes would be immediate. Is this not the case? Do I need to wait the normal 24-48 hours for the ISP's to note that there's no longer any "stealth nameservers"?

Thanks again very much for your help,
json

 

[MN-Robert]

It's cached so you will need to wait. I suggest you reply to the bug report i linked to so we get some action on this issue. It's not good enough to be an issue for two months.

 

[schwim]

I did as you suggested, and wrote a reply to the bug report. Thanks very much for your assistance. It would have taken me forever to stumble upon it!

thanks,
json