3-3-2.dns-security-lab - Debugging BIND (named.conf and zone file errors)

[pswapneel]

Adding these under Issues, though they are more of suggestions which could be helpful for participants of the workshop & added in the slides. If you want me to send these using an alternative medium(email?), please let me know.

I have found debugging errors (syntax etc) in BIND to be really hard to track down. During the lab, was going in circles till I used a couple of commands which pointed the error. Attached is the screenshot.

• To check for errors in a zone file named-checkzone group19.workshop /etc/bind/group19.workshop named-checkzone zonefilename /etc/bind/path/to/zone/file

• To check for errors in named.conf named-checkconf /etc/named.conf

[keiichishima]

Can wee see the contents of /etc/bind/group19.workshop??

[pswapneel]

@keiichishima Thank you for looking into this. I don't have the contents of that file. The error was due to a typing mistake. i.e "Problem is between computer and chair". :-)

But to identify that single typing mistake took considerable amount of time as named/bind wouldn't point to the exact problem/line number or the configuration file.

The reason for creating this issue was to suggest addition of the two commands in the slides so that in the future workshops, it can help participants in debugging syntax issues etc in the BIND configurations.

[keiichishima]

OK, I now understood. Yes, it is a good idea to include how to use the config check commands in the workshop.