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Waragainstsleep · Apr 27, 2013, 06:22 PM

Got a Lion Server running DNS with machine records for three computers on the same domain. Two are local, the other is a web server hosted elsewhere.

Its been running fine for years but all of a sudden it seems like DNS queries are not being answered. The server can't even successfully answer itself. The DNS forwarders seem to be working but all the local entries are failing.
I'm hoping its also the root cause of an issue I'm having with the OD database on this Mac.

The service says its running, it starts and stops happily enough and all the zone settings look fine. Any ideas?

besson3c · Apr 28, 2013, 05:32 AM

A bad zone file will cause this, have you tried examining each zone file and making necessary corrections?

Waragainstsleep · Apr 28, 2013, 05:51 AM

Can't say I have any experience with raw zone files. Are they just plain text and easy to decipher? I did wonder about just deleting the lot and recreating it from scratch. There is only a handful of entries but would that refresh the zone file?

Waragainstsleep · Apr 28, 2013, 05:54 AM

And now it seems to be working. Odd. Never even got to the zone files. Thanks anyway.

I have a feeling it was a dodgy nameserver record which I corrected yesterday but hadn't quite 'taken' straight away.

besson3c · Apr 28, 2013, 05:57 AM

Nameserver records are written to zone files - zone files are domain configuration files. I'm glad you figured out your problem!

Waragainstsleep · Apr 28, 2013, 02:52 PM

Sadly it hasn't resurrected my OD DB...

Waragainstsleep · May 1, 2013, 04:58 AM

I managed to resurrect the OD DB from a clone I made from a TM backup. Phew!

besson3c · May 1, 2013, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

I managed to resurrect the OD DB from a clone I made from a TM backup. Phew!

I would suggest making your own backups using slapcat. You could use a script like this for this purpose:

Code:
#!/bin/sh
LDAPBK=ldap-$( date +%y%m%d-%H%M ).ldif
BACKUPDIR=/path/to/backup/dir
/usr/sbin/slapcat -b "dc=yourdomain,dc=com" -l $BACKUPDIR/$LDAPBK
bzip2 -9 $BACKUPDIR/$LDAPBK

Waragainstsleep · May 1, 2013, 10:54 AM

Its a very small directory which gets modified very infrequently. I've never had one go bad on me before so I figured this one would be fine without any extra precautions but I was able to rescue it using only the built in archive & restore features in Server Admin. I have taken a backup now that I have added the new user they needed and will do this periodically in the future.

That script looks handy though, thanks. Mountain Lion does away with Server Admin so I guess it might be very useful if I upgrade the server soon.