[SOLVED] MX and CNAME notworking together

Running BIND9 on CentOS4

I have the following in my Primary zone file, the CNAME entry works fine. However the MX record is coming up as @in.students.schoolname.edu rather than @students.schoolname.edu

students IN CNAME login.live.com.

$ORIGIN students.schoolname.edu.

IN MX 10 1##14#####.mail.outlook.com.

If I do a test with this set up the MX reports back as @IN.students.schoolname.edu

I had the MX record in a subdomain zone and it worked great, however, no matter which way I turn I cannot get both the cname and MX records to work at the same time, any and all ideas appreciated.

MX records are to point to A records only. Also if you are wanting to post code and keep the format use the code tags.

You've done a good job obfuscating all the details in your zone file - so good that I really have no idea what the problem is.

Can you just post your zone file - including the SOA. As the previous responder indicated, an MX must point to a DNAME, not to an IP address....

Also, can you post the output from either dig or nslookup indicating what you get back and what you expect? You keep saying you get back @something - but I doubt that is what is really coming back.

Is your zone file for the zone "IN.students.schoolname.edu"? If so, then you are
not allowed to have entries with DNAMEs in the "students.schoolname.edu" domain because that is out of zone.

Lastly, you might want to try fully qualifying the DNAMES in your zone file instead of relying on $ORIGIN. It's much clearer...

Something like this:

students.students.schoolname.edu. IN CNAME login.live.com.
students.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 something.mail.outlook.com.

This first one shows using a slave zone. The CNAME never works in the slave zone file.

Code:

$TTL 1H $ORIGIN students.schoolname.edu. @ IN SOA ns1.students.schoolname.edu. root.schoolname.edu. ( 2010070101 ; serial 1H ; refresh 15M ; retry 2W ; expire 1D ; minimum ) IN NS ns1.students.schoolname.edu. IN NS ns2.students.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com. ns1 IN A ##.###.###.17 ns2 IN A ##.###.###.18

Running DIG MX students.schoolname.edu

Code:

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> mx students.schoolname.edu ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 32244 ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;students.schoolname.edu. IN MX ;; ANSWER SECTION: students.schoolname.edu. 3600 IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com. ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: students.schoolname.edu. 3600 IN NS ns2.students.schoolname.edu. students.schoolname.edu. 3600 IN NS ns1.students.schoolname.edu. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns1.students.schoolname.edu. 3600 IN A ##.###.###.## ns2.students.schoolname.edu. 3600 IN A ##.###.###.## ;; Query time: 3 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Wed Jul 7 13:32:48 2010 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 152

This one is using the master zone file:

Code:

$TTL 3D $ORIGIN schoolname.edu. @ IN SOA ns1.schoolname.edu. root.schoolname.edu. ( 2010070601 1H 15M 2W 1D ) IN NS ns1.schoolname.edu. IN NS ns2.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 mail.schoolname.edu. IN A ##.###.###.17 ns1 IN A ##.###.###.17 annum IN CNAME ns1 lists IN CNAME ns1 ns IN CNAME ns1 ns2 IN A ##.###.###.18 angb IN CNAME ns2 studentwebs IN CNAME ns2 I left out the records of the other servers, including the primary mail info. students.schoolname.edu. IN CNAME login.live.com.

Results of DIG students.schoolname.edu

Code:

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> students.schoolname.edu ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 23351 ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 8, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;students.schoolname.edu. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: students.schoolname.edu. 2###00 IN CNAME login.live.com. login.live.com. ##### IN CNAME login.live.com.nsatc.net. login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.136 login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.179 login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.10 login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.49 login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.77 login.live.com.nsatc.net. 551 IN A ##.#4.###.109 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS j.ns.nsatc.net. nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS l.ns.nsatc.net. nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS a.ns.nsatc.net. nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS b.ns.nsatc.net. nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS c.ns.nsatc.net. nsatc.net. 1####1 IN NS e.ns.nsatc.net. ;; Query time: 6 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Wed Jul 7 13:47:16 2010 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 302

If I add the following to the bottom primary zone file:

Code:

$ORIGIN students.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com.

The cname works but the MX record points to in.students.schoolname.edu If I indent the IN the zone file errs.

If I change the MS section of the primary to this:

Code:

IN NS ns1.schoolname.edu. IN NS ns2.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 mail.schoolname.edu. students IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com.

The MX record works fine ( I get the same results as shown in the slave zone example), however it errs if I readd in the CNAME part.

The CNAME only seems to work in the master zone, the MX will work in both the master and slave zones.

BTW I did try
students.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com.

&

students.students.schoolname.edu. IN CNAME login.live.com.

they did not work either

Ah, I think this is all making sense now.

First, this comment:
If I indent the IN the zone file errs.

Yeah, that is because if you don't indent, you are actually adding a record with the name "IN". My bet the error you are getting is something like "Can't have CNAME and other data".

This is the problem. You are not allowed to have any DNAME that has both a CNAME and any other record type.

For example, this is illegal:

Code:

foobar.unixpeople.com. IN CNAME woody.unixpeople.com. foobar.unixpeople.com. IN NS woody.unixpeople.com.

I think you will find that you have NS records for students.schoolname.edu (either explicit or implied) and when you try to use a CNAME, it will fail.

You use the terms master, slave and primary, but I think you mean "parent" and "child" zone.
If you really did mean master and slave in the context of where you used them, then it could be that you have directives in your file to allow "looser enforcement of rules" on the master vs. on the slave. If that is the case, you can google. for these keywords:

check-names ( master | slave | response ) ( fail | warn | ignore );
check-mx ( fail | warn | ignore );
check-integrity boolean;
check-mx-cname ( fail | warn | ignore );

Hope this helps.

I decided to point the CNAME to somewhere else, out of frustration and it works fine.

Code:

IN NS ns1.students.schoolname.edu. IN NS ns2.students.schoolname.edu. IN MX 10 1#########.mail.outlook.com. ns1 IN A ##.###.###.17 ns2 IN A ##.###.###.18 ;;ADDED LINE mail IN CNAME login.live.com.

It changes the URL to point to mail.students.schoolname.edu, rather that students.schoolname.edu. Which is fine for me.