That is what I think as well Carlos, that the Linux behavior is the "correct" one. However, if all name servers return a response of NXDOMAIN for non-existent hosts/domains, then one could not really have a client try one name server, and failing to find what it is looking for, go to the next one. Other than using the trick that I used, which is OK but only practical in cases where one server has all the zones (in my case my ISPs DNS server) and the other just has a few (my employer's internal DNS server). Thanks again, --Moby They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. -- Pastor Martin Niemöller Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Monday 2004-03-15 at 15:03 -0600, Mobeen Azhar wrote:
Ok, I got NAMED to properly handle the forwarders by putting in per zone forwarder entries. Basicallly, I left the global forwarders entry as below, but then I created zones of type forward for the few zones that are hosted by server z.y.x.u. Then I put in a zone specific forwarders entry just for the zones hosted on z.y.x.u.
Interesting trick.
Now it works, but I would still (1) Try to get the thing to work just off of resolv.conf
I don't think that's possible. It is against the description of how it works, as I read it time ago. I mean, the behavior you see in Linux resolving is correct, the other is probably not (this I guess because Linux somehow "imitates" Unix, and Unix is older than "the other": so Unix must be the correct one).
(2) Figure out why the global forwarders entry did not work.
Again, because that is the correct behavior.
Let me see... man resolv.conf
nameserver Internet address (in dot notation) of a name server that the resolver should query. Up to MAXNS (cur rently 3) name servers may be listed, one per key word. If there are multiple servers, the resolver library queries them in the order listed. If no nameserver entries are present, the default is to use the name server on the local machine. (The algorithm used is to try a name server, and if the query times out, try the next, until out of name servers, then repeat trying all the name servers until a maximum number of retries are made.)
So, if it gets an answer from the first server, any answer, it will not query any other server. Internet name space is supposed to be unique, answers from different servers should be equivalent.