DNS records not propagating completely

Discussion in 'General' started by Finco, Jun 24, 2020.

  1. Finco

    Finco New Member

    I'm sorry if this is an odd question but I've searched everywhere trying to solve this issue. Also, this might not be an ISPConfig issue but this Forum seems to have a lot of users with a lot of experienced with DNS issues.

    My ISPConfig installation currently hosts 4 websites. 3 of them are working correctly.
    The problem is that the last one (zenithdelivery.org) works only in certain countries. At first, I thought it was an issue with my config until some users told me they could access the website. Others couldn't.

    I checked https://intodns.com/zenithdelivery.org and I am getting this error:
    "Nameservers A records ERROR: Some of your DNS servers do not have A records at all. I could not find any A records for the following DNS servers:
    ns3.fincohost.com"

    My confusion is that in ISPConfig, I used the same DNS template to create the other 3 websites and they work fine. The only website with an issue is zenithdelivery.org. When I used online dns propagation tools to check, I noticed that the domain's A records are not available on some DNS servers including Google's Public DNS, while it is available in others.

    If I however point this domain's name servers to a DirectAdmin Server, the A records propagate correctly and passes all tests by the same online tool.
    This led me to suspect the issue might be unique to ISPConfig but I might be wrong....

    Here are the DNS Records
    [​IMG]

    I just need to know why the A records are not propagating to all DNS normally.

    Thank you in advance
     
  2. Taleman

    Taleman Well-Known Member HowtoForge Supporter

    You wrote
    But there are no A records for the name servers. Do you have A records for ns3 and ns4?
    See the Tutorial linked to in my signature.
     
  3. Steini86

    Steini86 Active Member

    You have configured ns3.fincohost.com and ns4.fincohost.com to be your name servers. However, ns3.fincohost.com does not exist and ns4 looks strangely configured. ns1 and ns2 look fine, although they have both the same IP address.
     
    Finco likes this.
  4. nhybgtvfr

    nhybgtvfr Well-Known Member HowtoForge Supporter

    it may be that you've already changed some things this morning, but according to your own dns servers, you only have the 2 servers configured, ns1 and ns2:

    nslookup -q=ns fincohost.com ns1.fincohost.com
    Server: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151#53

    fincohost.com nameserver = ns1.fincohost.com.
    fincohost.com nameserver = ns2.fincohost.com.

    yet you have 3 of them set with your domain registrar:
    whois fincohost.com
    Domain Name: FINCOHOST.COM
    Registry Domain ID: 2476479814_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
    Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com
    Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com
    Updated Date: 2020-04-24T10:14:07Z
    Creation Date: 2020-01-05T21:28:24Z
    Registry Expiry Date: 2021-01-05T21:28:24Z
    Name Server: NS1.FINCOHOST.COM
    Name Server: NS2.FINCOHOST.COM
    Name Server: NS3.FINCOHOST.COM

    and you don't have any A records for ns3 or ns4 in your fincohost.com zone:

    nslookup ns1.fincohost.com ns1.fincohost.com
    Server: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151#53

    Name: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151

    nslookup ns2.fincohost.com ns1.fincohost.com
    Server: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151#53

    Name: ns2.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151

    nslookup ns3.fincohost.com ns1.fincohost.com
    Server: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151#53

    ** server can't find ns3.fincohost.com: NXDOMAIN

    nslookup ns4.fincohost.com ns1.fincohost.com
    Server: ns1.fincohost.com
    Address: 167.172.154.151#53

    ** server can't find ns4.fincohost.com: NXDOMAIN

    you need to set the ns records on zenithdelivery.org to point to ns1 and ns2, and make sure the zonefile is created on that server, and remove ns3 from the nameservers listed with your registrar.
    or add ns4 to your nameservers with your registrar, and create A records for ns3 and ns4 in your fincohost.com zone.
    if ns3 and ns4 are going to serve dns for different domains to ns1 and ns2, that should be enough, otherwise, make sure all zonefiles have ns records for ns1, ns2, ns3 and ns4.

    *note if you are going to use ns3 and ns4 as well, you also need to create glue records for them with your registrar.
     
  5. Finco

    Finco New Member

    Thank you very much for the reply, I will check the tutorial out
     
  6. Finco

    Finco New Member

    Okay Okay, I think I understand what you mean. I will try this out immediately.

    Actually, I didn't give all required information (My Bad).
    • ns1 and ns2.fincohost.com are both pointed to the same DirectAdmin Server (167.172.154.151).
    • https://fincohost.com/ is hosted on the DirectAdmin server
    • ns3 and ns4 are pointed to the ISPConfig server (157.245.246.251). The plan is to migrate from DirectAdmin to ISPConfig when I'm done.
    • ns3 and ns4 are registered nameservers with namecheap. Here's a screenshot, just incase I am confused:
      [​IMG]
    I am sorry if this might seem like a funny question: are you saying that I am supposed to Add A records for ns3.fincohost.com and ns4.fincohost.com in the DirectAdmin server?
     
  7. Taleman

    Taleman Well-Known Member HowtoForge Supporter

    I think it would help if you read that Tutorial in my signature about "Set up DNS with ISPConfig". Then you could ask better questions, or even better not need to ask questions.
    If you have NS record for ns3.fincohost.com, you must also have A record for ns3.fincohost.com on the name server that is authoritative for name service zone fincohost.com.
     
    Finco likes this.
  8. Finco

    Finco New Member

    I just did what you and @Taleman suggested and it works now. Really really appreciate the help cause I've been on this for weeks now
     
  9. Finco

    Finco New Member

    Actually, I had before yesterday but now that I understand it better, I'll read the tutorial again to better understand what just happened
     
  10. Finco

    Finco New Member

    Please one last question and this is purely for the sake of learning:
    I am wondering why exactly did the other websites hosted on ns3 and ns4 servers work properly (Had DNS issues initially though but they worked, making the main problem hidden).

    It'll really help my learning process if I can understand this
     
  11. nhybgtvfr

    nhybgtvfr Well-Known Member HowtoForge Supporter

    yes, add A records for ns3 and ns4 for fincohost.com in both directadmin and ispconfig.

    if you're planning to migrate the dns, then:

    *note that this is assuming you are migrating all dns, and any other services like mail, hosting etc, are already migrated or will be migrated after the dns migration, with no dns records needing changing for non dns related services.

    ensure ns1, ns2, ns3, and ns4, are listed as nameservers with namecheap, and that namecheap has glue records for each one.

    make sure the fincohost.com dns zone has A records for ns1, ns2, ns3, and ns4.
    make sure the fincohost.com dns zone has NS records for ns1, ns2. ns3 and ns4.

    for any other domains whose dns is currently using your directadmin dns servers.
    create zone files for them in ispconfig, give the nameservers for them as ns1, ns2, ns3, and ns4.
    make sure all other dns records in those zones match the records in the directadmin dns.

    test all your dns, to ensure that ns3 and ns4 are working and returning the correct records as expected.
    if they are, make sure that the nameservers listed with the registrar for each zone is only ns3 and ns4, except for the fincohost.com domain.
    remove the ns records for ns1 and ns2 from all zones in ispconfig and directadmin EXCEPT for the fincohost.com domain.
    remove the A records for ns1 and ns2 from all zone files in ispconfig and directadmin EXCEPT for the fincohost.com domain.

    these 3 steps can all be done at the same time, but you may prefer to wait a few days between each one to ensure no problems appear.
    once all that's done and is working fine for a couple of days, remove ns1 and ns2 as nameservers for the fincohost.com domain with namecheap, and remove the NS and A records for ns1 and ns2 from the fincohost.com zonefiles on both ispconfig and directadmin.


    note that this above is the slowest/safest way to do this, it makes sure the existing dns works, adds the new dns alongside it, and gives you a chance to test it, before removing the old dns.

    if you're confident that ns3 and ns4 are configured and working properly, and the glue records exist, and A records for them exist in the fincohost.com zone in both directadmin and ispconfig, then this next method is quicker, changing everything at once, but also more likely to encounter problems due to something being missed/incorrect or dns propagation not being quick enough.
    you can just set the nameservers for each domain (except fincohost.com) to ns3 and ns4 at the registrar, and set ns3 and ns4 as the nameservers in your ispconfig zones, and remove those zones from the directadmin dns.
    once they're all done and working, you can remove ns1 and ns2 as nameservers for fincohost.com at the registrar, and remove the NS and A records for ns1 and ns2 in the ispconfig zone for that domain.

    i'd suggest you read, and understand @talemans tutorial first before changing anything. if you're not sure what you're doing with dns, it's easy to get into a big mess, and it'll at least ensure that your ispconfig dns should be properly configured and working before you start adding live zones into it.
     
  12. nhybgtvfr

    nhybgtvfr Well-Known Member HowtoForge Supporter


    they didn't. at least not using ns3 or ns4, did they have ns1 and ns2 configured as well? if so, they were probably working on that when those were queried, and a request failed if ns3 or ns4 were queried. so it may have worked intermittently.
    if ns1 and ns2 were previously configured, and you removed/changed them to ns3 and ns4, then the domains were most likely successfully getting resolved due to cached dns responses.
    the domains/ip's could also have been configured in hosts files, and anything getting them from the hosts files will continue to work regardless of dns working or not.
     
  13. Finco

    Finco New Member

    I really appreciate the tutorial. Thank you very much
    I will follow this when I'm ready to start the migration.
     
    ahrasis likes this.

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