Activity log for bug #339910

Date Who What changed Old value New value Message
2009-03-09 12:40:38 Marc Luethi bug added bug
2009-03-09 12:41:53 Marc Luethi description Hi all! https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/dns-troubleshooting.html suggests that: ------------------------------ ping Once a host has been configured to use the new nameserver one of the simplest tests is the ping utility. From a terminal prompt enter: ping example.com This tests if the nameserver can resolve the name example.com to an IP Address. The command output should resemble: PING example.com (192.168.1.10) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from ns (192.168.1.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.800 ms 64 bytes from ns (192.168.1.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.813 ms ------------------------------ This section has errors in two aspects: A. Using "ping" to test hostname resolution is the wrong approach. Ping is a tool that tests if you can get an "ICMP echo request" message to a host and receive an "ICMP echo" message back. Nothing more. If someone for some reason happens to have a weird configuration in /etc/nsswitch.conf, a completely different name resolution mechanism might return an unuseable or even false (either positive or negative) answer. I suggest moving the "ping" section to come after the "dig" section and rephrasing it to read "now let's demonstrate how applications make use of DNS to resolve a host name". B. The example zone data for example.com, given in (https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/dns-configuration.html), the page before this one, will not enable resolution of the "example.com" name: ----------------------- ; ; BIND data file for local loopback interface ; $TTL 604800 @ IN SOA ns.example.com. root.example.com. ( 1 ; Serial 604800 ; Refresh 86400 ; Retry 2419200 ; Expire 604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL ; @ IN NS ns.example.com. @ IN A 192.168.1.10 ns IN A 192.168.1.10 ------------------------ There is no "IN A" record for example.com. "ping example.com" will return "ping: unknown host example.com". The ping test should either be for ns.example.com, or the sample zone file should include the IN A record for example.com. However, I suggest not to include the A record for example.com, as it can be quite confusing for a novice user that what looks like an "upper level" domain name (and is therefore not a "host" or "computer") can have an IP address. The "ping test" (if included at all, see A.) should test for ns.example.com instead of example.com. regards Marc Hi all! https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/dns-troubleshooting.html suggests that: ------------------------------ ping Once a host has been configured to use the new nameserver one of the simplest tests is the ping utility. From a terminal prompt enter: ping example.com This tests if the nameserver can resolve the name example.com to an IP Address. The command output should resemble: PING example.com (192.168.1.10) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from ns (192.168.1.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.800 ms 64 bytes from ns (192.168.1.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.813 ms ------------------------------ This section has errors in two aspects: A. Using "ping" to test hostname resolution is the wrong approach. Ping is a tool that tests if you can get an "ICMP echo request" message to a host and receive an "ICMP echo" message back. Nothing more. If someone for some reason happens to have a weird configuration in /etc/nsswitch.conf, a completely different name resolution mechanism might return an unuseable or even false (either positive or negative) answer. I suggest moving the "ping" section to come after the "dig" section and rephrasing it to read "now let's demonstrate how applications make use of DNS to resolve a host name". B. The example zone data for example.com, given in (https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/dns-configuration.html), the page before this one, will not enable resolution of the "example.com" name: ----------------------- ; ; BIND data file for local loopback interface ; $TTL 604800 @ IN SOA ns.example.com. root.example.com. ( 1 ; Serial 604800 ; Refresh 86400 ; Retry 2419200 ; Expire 604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL ; @ IN NS ns.example.com. @ IN A 192.168.1.10 ns IN A 192.168.1.10 ------------------------ There is no IN A record for example.com. "ping example.com" will return "ping: unknown host example.com". The ping test should either be for ns.example.com, or the sample zone file should include the IN A record for example.com. However, I suggest not to include the IN A record for example.com, as it can be quite confusing for a novice user that what looks like an "upper level" domain name (and is therefore not a "host" or "computer") can have an IP address. The "ping test" (if included at all, see A.) should test for ns.example.com instead of example.com. regards Marc
2009-03-09 12:51:58 Marc Luethi title ServerGuide DNS: ping is not a lookup test and wrong sample zonefile ServerGuide DNS: ping is not a lookup test and data in sample zonefile wrong for given example
2009-03-10 02:07:05 Adam Sommer ubuntu-doc: status New Fix Committed
2009-03-10 02:07:05 Adam Sommer ubuntu-doc: assignee asommer
2009-03-10 02:07:05 Adam Sommer ubuntu-doc: statusexplanation Thank your for reporting this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I've added your changes to revision 220. Great stuff, thanks again for reporting those errors.
2009-03-14 11:41:18 Matthew East ubuntu-doc: status Fix Committed Fix Released
2009-03-14 11:41:18 Matthew East ubuntu-doc: statusexplanation Thank your for reporting this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I've added your changes to revision 220. Great stuff, thanks again for reporting those errors. This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-docs - 9.04.4
2009-08-04 19:44:17 Launchpad Janitor branch linked lp:ubuntu/karmic/ubuntu-docs