[SOLVED] DNS etc

[pmccrackan]

Hi, Im going to set up Zimbra Open source edition on Fedora 11 (64 bit)
My domain is registered at Register.com and they do the DNS, my MX record etc is all hosted there.
When I set up my DNS on the Zimbra installtion, do I point it to the same DNS as the server it is running on (IE; the adsl modem - which in turn points to my ISP dns) this works for other mail servers such as Axigen, Communigate etc. Or, do I point to it directly to the DNS at Register.com?
I am just playing around with mail servers gaining expereince etc so it's not an Enterprise setup or anything like that.
Though I am considering setting up a mail server to rpop (can Zimbra RPOP?) all my other accounts, gmail etc and have all my emails accessable on one web interface.
Thanks for any tips etc.
Regards Peter.

[uxbod]

Welcome to the forums

As your MX is hosted elsewhere for testing you can setup a Split DNS - Zimbra :: Wiki architecture. Zimbra allows you to create external accounts which would allow you to POP/IMAP email from other servers into you ZCS account.

[pmccrackan]

thanks for that, when I'm setting up I'll follow those instructions.

Regards Peter.

Welcome to the forums

As your MX is hosted elsewhere for testing you can setup a Split DNS - Zimbra :: Wiki architecture. Zimbra allows you to create external accounts which would allow you to POP/IMAP email from other servers into you ZCS account.

[pmccrackan]

Okay, I having issues getting this right. I'm getting this message when doing the NSLookup server cant find myserver.mydomain: NXDOMAIN

Oh, another thing that may make a difference is that my mail domain is different to my internal domain, IE: mail - email@domain.org
Internal domain - server.domain.corp
Here are the details.

My MX record and SPF records are on Register.com DNS servers.

My system at home goes through an ADSL modem, I port forward from it.
So port 80 forwards to my internal webserver IP, port 25 etc forward to my mailserver internal IP

The MX record points to my ADSL modem External IP supplied by my ISP.

I suppose I may have to supply more details, of what I have put into the configuration files etc.
Please let me know which ones are most likely incorrect.
I wan tto ge this right before I begin the Zimbra setup.
Does the MX record at Register.com make any difference as far as the nslookup is concerned when testing bind?
Many thanks for any assistance.
Regards Peter.

[phoenix]

The MX record points to my ADSL modem External IP supplied by my ISP.

It should not do that, you need valid DNS A & MX records pointing to the LAN IP address of your Zimbra server - as per the Split DNS article.

Post the output of the following commands (after making the above change) run on the Zimbra server:

cat /etc/resolv.conf
cat /etc/hosts
dig yourdomain.com mx
dig yourdomain.conf any
host `hostname` <-- use that exact command with backticks not single quotes

[pmccrackan]

Thanks very much for the quick response.

cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by NetWorkManager
nameserver 10.1.1.1 default gateway
nameserver 10.1.1.203 m37-zmail.m37.corp (mail server)

cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.1.1.203 m37-zmail.m37.corp m37-zmail

dig mendel37.org mx
; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P3-RedHat-9.6.1-9.P3.fc11 <<>> mendel37.org mx
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26616
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mendel37.org. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mendel37.org. 14400 IN MX 0 m37-zmail.m37.corp.

;; Query time: 391 msec
;; SERVER: 10.1.1.1#53(10.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Jan 25 23:55:50 2010
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 64

dig mendel37.conf any

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P3-RedHat-9.6.1-9.P3.fc11 <<>> mendel37.conf any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 31538
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mendel37.conf. IN ANY

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
. 86264 IN SOA A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. NSTLD.VERISIGN-GRS.COM. 2010012500 1800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 161 msec
;; SERVER: 10.1.1.1#53(10.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jan 26 00:01:26 2010
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 106

'hostname'
Host hostname not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

[phoenix]

There are two problems with your configuration, you need to remove the highlighted line from you resolv.conf:

cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by NetWorkManager
nameserver 10.1.1.1 default gateway
nameserver 10.1.1.203 m37-zmail.m37.corp (mail server)

You only need the DNS server in there that contains the records for your Zimbra server.

You also seem to have no A record pointing to your Zimbra server.

Is there any reason that your internal domain is different to the one used externally? I usually find it better to have them named the same.

[pmccrackan]

Thanks for the help. Yes, I agree having the 2 Domain names complicates things a lot. However, in my experience it is a common thing to have the internal domain set differently to the external domain.
Perhaps it's my MS training showing up here!
I have made the changes required.
Now it seems to be pointing to the default gatgeway internal IP rather than the mailserver internal IP?

cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by Network Manager
nameserver 10.1.1.203
nameserver 10.1.1.1   (have this as my secondary DNS server in Network manager)

cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1    localhost.localdomain locahost
10.1.1.203  m37-zmail.mendel37.org  m37-zmail                m37-zmail

dig mendel37.org mx

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P3-RedHat-9.6.1-9.P3.fc11 <<>> mendel37.org mx
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 62690
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mendel37.org.			IN	MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mendel37.org.		14283	IN	MX	0 m37-zmail.mendel37.org.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
m37-zmail.mendel37.org.	13919	IN	A	203.59.99.147

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 10.1.1.1#53(10.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jan 26 07:31:28 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 72

dig mendel37.conf any

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P3-RedHat-9.6.1-9.P3.fc11 <<>> mendel37.conf any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 3205
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mendel37.conf.			IN	ANY

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
.			59174	IN	SOA	A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. NSTLD.VERISIGN-GRS.COM. 2010012500 1800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 172 msec
;; SERVER: 10.1.1.1#53(10.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jan 26 07:32:55 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 106

nslookup m37-zmail.mendel37.org
Server:		10.1.1.1
Address:	10.1.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	m37-zmail.mendel37.org
Address: 203.59.99.147

Regards, Peter.

[phoenix]

The problem is that you're picking up the DNS records from your server at 10.1.1.1 - unless that has exactly the same DNS records for your domain as the Split DNS server then you will always have a problem. You can either add the LAN DNS records to your gateway DNS server (if you can do that) and if not you should remove that server from your resolv.conf and clear the DNS cache on your Zimbra server.

[pmccrackan]

Hi Thanks again............. but now that I have removed 10.1.1.1 from the resolv.conf and as a secondary dns server in Network management, it just times out when doing the nslookup.
nslookup m37-zmail.mendel37.org
;; connection timed out,no servers could be reached.

So, the DNS server at 10.1.1.203 (m37-zmail.mendel37.org) does not appear to functioning. So why is it not working I wonder?