t1mmclaren

Q: DNS not working in server admin

I am having massive problems with my DNS within server admin on 10.7 (lion).

 

The service says it is running under the overview tab and that there are 4 primary zones (these were set up under 10.6 snow leopard). But if I click on the zones tab nothing shows up. The little spinning wheel in the bottom right hand corner runs for a while and then I get a "The service has encountered an error. Try refresh the view (server.local/DNS). (kRecievedUnknownError).

 

Also if I click on the log tab it says "selected log file does not exist"

 

I have tried the following:

* stopping and starting the service

* deleting and re-adding the service

* deleting and re-adding the server from Server Admin

* restarting the server machine

 

None of these have helped. Can anybody assist with this issue.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Sep 2, 2011 3:25 PM

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Q: DNS not working in server admin

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  • by t1mmclaren,

    t1mmclaren t1mmclaren Sep 9, 2011 5:22 PM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 9, 2011 5:22 PM in response to t1mmclaren

    What is the deal with nobody responding to any of my posts about issues to do width lion server! I used to get real good response and support around here. Is lion too new?

  • by Ron Smith2,

    Ron Smith2 Ron Smith2 Sep 23, 2011 11:55 PM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 11:55 PM in response to t1mmclaren

    I just now did the upgrade on my Snow Leopard to Lion Server, and I'm having the same problem. Anybody else and is there a resolution?

  • by John.Kitzmiller,

    John.Kitzmiller John.Kitzmiller Sep 24, 2011 12:59 PM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 3 (870 points)
    Sep 24, 2011 12:59 PM in response to t1mmclaren

    I had similar issues when upgrading to 10.7 server. I believe the upgrade corrupted my DNS zone files. The steps I took to solve the issue were:

     

    Stop DNS service in Server Admin

    Delete /etc/named.conf

    Delete the contents of /var/named

    Reboot for good measure

    Place a default copy of named.conf in /etc/

    Recofigure the DNS service in Server Admin

    Reboot for good measure

    Start DNS service in Server Admin

     

    It's a pain entering all of the zones and records manually, but it works.

  • by Ron Smith2,

    Ron Smith2 Ron Smith2 Sep 25, 2011 7:26 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 25, 2011 7:26 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

    I did spend several hours reentering the hundred domains in my dns.

     

    I cannot though seem to get zone transfers to work though. I had to manually replace the parameter for zone transfers in each zone parameter line in named.conf, but the zone transfers are still not happening. The named.log is recording nothing as well.

  • by chaicka,

    chaicka chaicka Sep 27, 2011 7:25 PM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Sep 27, 2011 7:25 PM in response to t1mmclaren

    I have just purchased a brand new Mac Mini Server with Lion Server running. Managed to set up DNS service and 5 zones configured and running fine for 1 to 2 days.

     

    The DNS in Server Admin suddenly stopped loading the information and buttons are all greyed out last night, with no changes made since I was away at work. It keeps getting the same situation as thread starter mentioned. I have tried all possible means but it just stop loading zones information anymore.

     

    I would like to try John's approach but it seems I am unable to get 'root' access to perform those actions. Thus would appreciate some advice on how to proceed forward to resolve the issue.

     

    1. Tried the Directory Utility approach to "Enable Root" but when enter terminal, 'sudo root' does not seem to accept the password I have set. Is there any other means to enable an account to have sufficient access to perform those DNS related resolution steps?

     

    2. Is there any location to obtain a copy of the default named.conf?

  • by John.Kitzmiller,

    John.Kitzmiller John.Kitzmiller Sep 28, 2011 8:20 AM in response to chaicka
    Level 3 (870 points)
    Sep 28, 2011 8:20 AM in response to chaicka

    You should be able to to enable root privledges simply by putting 'sudo' in front of whatever command you are attempting, while logged in with an administrator account. For example:

     

    sudo rm /etc/named.conf
    

     

    You then just put in the password of the administrator account.

     

    You can obtain a default copy of named.conf here: http://www.johnkitzmiller.com/files/named.conf.zip

  • by John.Kitzmiller,

    John.Kitzmiller John.Kitzmiller Sep 28, 2011 8:43 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller
    Level 3 (870 points)
    Sep 28, 2011 8:43 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

    Please note that my previous instructions are not correct. You should NOT remove everything in /var/named, only the forward and reverse zones.

     

    I've posted an updated set of instructions here: http://johnkitzmiller.com/?p=34

  • by Ron Smith2,

    Ron Smith2 Ron Smith2 Sep 28, 2011 8:47 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 28, 2011 8:47 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

    Actually a 'blank' default named.conf file is there already, I think (it was on my Lion install), but called named.conf~orig instead.

     

    Using su or sudo, navigate to the /etc directory, you can then do a cp ./named.conf~origin ./named.conf will REPLACE the existing named.conf file.

     

    I would suggest before this that you do a cp ./named.conf ./named.conf.bak if you don't want to lose any existing information in the named.conf file before it is overwritten by the new one.

  • by chaicka,

    chaicka chaicka Sep 28, 2011 9:53 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Sep 28, 2011 9:53 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

    Hi John,

     

    Big thanks to the response. I have contacted Apple Support and have the issue resolved. Indeed, just the forward and reverse zones files (typically db.*) in /var/named to be deleted and not the others.

  • by chaicka,

    chaicka chaicka Sep 28, 2011 9:56 AM in response to Ron Smith2
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Sep 28, 2011 9:56 AM in response to Ron Smith2

    Hi Ron,

     

    Unfortunately, there is no named.conf~orig in my situation where it's a brand new fresh from factory box that has Lion Server preloaded.

     

    I believe the named.conf~orig file exists if it's an upgraded Lion Server on existing device that was running pre-Lion Mac OS X.

  • by chaicka,

    chaicka chaicka Oct 21, 2011 2:13 AM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 21, 2011 2:13 AM in response to t1mmclaren

    Just to share experience. I had a second occurrence of the zones not loading in the Server Admin GUI after updating and saved one of the zone. Reboot of the Mac Mini Lion Server didn't help either.

     

    How it was resolved:

     

    In the system log, error logs were found that points to problem loading that last saved zone and followed by crash. After identifying the zone file, stopped the DNS service, went to the path where the zone file resides in and rename the file to *****.bak, refresh the DNS | Zone in the Server Admin which now shows all the zones that exists, select the problematic zone and delete it. Restart DNS service, open the renamed *****.bak zone file in text editor and proceed to recreate the zone and its associated DNS records in the DNS | Zone GUI. After that, delete the renamed *****.bak zone file.

     

    Seems like the Server Admin GUI isn't reliable, even for the latest version 10.7.2.

  • by mdpk,

    mdpk mdpk Jan 14, 2012 6:38 AM in response to chaicka
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Jan 14, 2012 6:38 AM in response to chaicka

    chaicka: It sounds like you have a good solution.  Can you provide more detail?  Where did you did find this file?

  • by AtzeP,

    AtzeP AtzeP Feb 4, 2012 11:10 AM in response to t1mmclaren
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2012 11:10 AM in response to t1mmclaren

    I experienced exactly the same problem in Lion server (10.7.2, but also in 10.7.3).

     

    For me it solved the problem by renaming some files in /var/named/.

     

    1. open a shell
    2. stop DNS service (> sudo serveradmin stop dns)   (you can stop DNS service in Server Admin too)
    3. change directory to /var/named  (> cd /var/named)
    4. rename all "db.*" files to "db.*.backup" (> sudo mv db.xxxx.xxxx db.xxxx.xxxx.backup)
    5. rebuild your DNS settings in Server Admin
    6. start DNS service (> sudo serveradmin start dns)  (you can start DNS service in Server Admin too)
  • by alexanderfromlos altos,

    alexanderfromlos altos alexanderfromlos altos Mar 15, 2012 4:22 PM in response to AtzeP
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2012 4:22 PM in response to AtzeP

    Thank you very much.  It worked!

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