BIND not starting

[Simon123]

Hi all, would really appreciate anyone's help with the following.

Commissioning a new server which will hopefully take over from our old one soon. It was a minimum install of CentOS 7.0.1406, now with Plesk 12.0.18 installed.

All was well, started adding a couple of domains on, all was well I thought until a reboot. BIND didn't come back up. It seems to be similar to the issue here:

http://talk.plesk.com/threads/dns-problem-bind-with-centos-6-x.292561

Trying to start BIND via Plesk gets me:

Error: Unable to make action:
Unable to manage service by dnsmng: Empty error message from utility. ('--start', 'dns')

Trying to start from a shell gets me:

# service named start
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start named.service
Job for named.service failed. See 'systemctl status named.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.

#systemctl status named.service
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: _default/pct-hosting.com/IN: file not found
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: zone 93.250.212.in-addr.arpa/IN: loading from master file 93.250.212.in-addr.arpa failed: file not found
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: zone 93.250.212.in-addr.arpa/IN: not loaded due to errors.
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: _default/93.250.212.in-addr.arpa/IN: file not found
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com systemd[1]: named.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Berkeley Internet Name Domain (DNS).
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com systemd[1]: Unit named.service entered failed state.

# journalctl -xn
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: zone 93.250.212.in-addr.arpa/IN: not loaded due to errors.
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com named-checkconf[8699]: _default/93.250.212.in-addr.arpa/IN: file not found
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com systemd[1]: named.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 27 17:41:10 pleskserver.pct.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Berkeley Internet Name Domain (DNS).
-- Subject: Unit named.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit named.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.

Some other info that might be useful:

# ll /etc/named.conf
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 32 Oct 25 20:24 /etc/named.conf -> /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf

# cat /etc/named.conf | grep directory
directory "/var";

# cat /etc/sysconfig/named | grep -v "#"
ROOTDIR="/var/named/chroot"
OPTIONS="-c /etc/named.conf -u named -n 2"

# /usr/local/psa/bin/repair -r
-- Restoring DNS server configuration... started.
-- (all records return...): Ok

# ls -al /var/named/chroot/var
drwxr-xr-x. 3 named named 4096 Nov 27 17:48 .
drwxr-xr-x. 5 root root 36 Oct 25 20:24 ..
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 301 Nov 27 17:04 209.208.10.in-addr.arpa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 327 Nov 27 17:04 93.250.212.in-addr.arpa
-r--r--r--. 1 10007 4001 391 Aug 13 2002 localhost.rev
-r--r--r--. 1 10007 4001 284 Jun 15 2001 make-localhost
-r--r--r--. 1 10007 4001 2769 Jun 15 2001 named.root
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 923 Nov 27 17:04 pct-hosting.com
-r--r--r--. 1 10007 4001 397 Aug 13 2002 PROTO.localhost.rev
drwxr-xr-x. 3 named named 18 Nov 14 2001 run

"/var/named/chroot/var" contains a list of my records, and those look okay taking a look with vi.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated

Simon.

 

[IgorG]

It seems your case - http://talk.plesk.com/threads/named-not-starting-with-centos7-and-plesk-12.329025/

 

[Simon123]

Hi all,

Unfortunately the link above didn't help :-( For the benefit of any future forum searches, the fix in my case was found using:

# named-checkconf -t /var/named/chroot -z
..
zone example.com/IN: NS 'example.com' has no address records (A or AAAA)
zone example.com/IN: not loaded due to errors.
_default/example.com/IN: bad zone
..

(Obviously, example.com wasn't the proper domain name on my server)

Reviewing the zone file /var/named/chroot/var/example.com, I realised there was no A/AAAA entry for ns.example.com, BUT there was an "NS" resource record that pointed there. Then it dawned on me.. a few days earlier I'd changed the "DNS Zone Template" (applying it to all sites too). I'd REMOVED the A/AAAA records pointing to <ip.dns> and <ip6.dns>, but I hadn't removed the NS record pointing to ns.<domain>. Problem hadn't become apparent immediately as it's only been a development box up to now that hasn't been commissioned yet :-\

(The purpose of me removing the records was simply that the name server stuff will be taken care of elsewhere.. unfortunately I'd overlooked the "NS" record that I'd left in place!)

So - if you see the same problem I've described in my original post; BIND not loading, references to "failed: file not found" (which I originally thought was file not found/permissions related)... you probably haven't made the bumbling mistake I have, and I'll not embarrass myself saying how long it took me to realise and fix it, but perhaps it'll help diagnose it if you check the layout of your zone files :0)

named-checkconf -t /var/named/chroot -z

Would it be helpful if Plesk pointed this out when you tried to start it through the admin UI? Probably - but it can't do everything I suppose!!

Simon.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Simon123,

the bind - server is not part of Plesk, it just helps you to configure your own nameserver, to make your administrator - life easier. But.. and here comes the "bad" part... Plesk has no "configuration-failure-script", that could investigate misconfigurations in your bind - configurations. You have to investigate the issues on your own, or could vote for such a feature at: http://plesk.uservoice.com ... or could add a suggestion for a new functionality regarding your issue.

 

[Simon123]

Hi UFHH01,

Understood - and I've learned that over the last few days!

It's not a dig at Plesk, don't worry.. I realise things not working was my doing - the pointer was just (hopefully) to help out others re: checking their zone files. It's not immediately obvious the problem ISN'T with Plesk to a user of similar ability.

If BIND isn't working, not necessarily Plesk's fault.. could well be your own mistake!

But - I've learned lots - so it's all good

Simon.

 

[jnarvaez]

Solution: service named-chroot restart

 

[Simon123]

Solution: service named-chroot restart

That's only the solution if the service is in a state capable of restarting.
The point of the thread is that it isn't, and how to find out why!