I added 3 new subdomains to my home network for testing. I added the records to my chroot'ed named at /var/named/chroot/var/named/named.conf. I just did reverse pointers and I couldn't get it to work:

[root@adept var]# host 192.168.4.120
Host 120.4.168.192.in-addr.arpa. not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

I did this with a simple Perl script, so I debugged the heck out of it and checked for tabs galore. I finally added forward lookups, which worked:

[root@adept var]# host blast-4-120
blast-4-120.internal.excfb.com has address 192.168.4.120

Heck, I've been burnt by a bad link in /etc before, so I checked it:

[root@adept var]# ls -al /etc/named.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root named 21 2008-02-25 16:15 /etc/named.conf -> /var/named/named.conf
[root@adept var]# ls -la /var/named/named.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root named 38 2008-02-25 16:24 /var/named/named.conf -> /var/named/chroot/var/named/named.conf

I even diff'ed them to be really, really sure. I ran named manually with '-g', fixed the warnings I got and then found out it didn't handle the chroot nicely. I looked at the init file and gave up on understanding it.

I couldn't find a log file for it, so I sent a SIGHUP to look for a database dump. I added logging to the config file and never saw any output. I never found that database dump.

But I did find an option that said where it should be:

       dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";

I then asked myself, is there another copy of the config file?

[root@adept var]# ps -ef | grep named
named     4047     1  0 00:30 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/named -u named -t /var/named/chroot
root      4207  2886  0 01:00 pts/3    00:00:00 grep named
[root@adept var]# cd /var
[root@adept var]# find . -name named.conf
./named/named.conf
./named/chroot/etc/named.conf
./named/chroot/var/named/named.conf
[root@adept var]# ls -la ./named/named.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root named 38 2008-02-25 16:24 ./named/named.conf -> /var/named/chroot/var/named/named.conf
[root@adept var]# ls -la ./named/chroot/etc/named.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root named 2741 2008-02-25 20:49 ./named/chroot/etc/named.conf

Why yes, yes there is and it doesn't have my new zones!

[root@adept etc]# pwd
/var/named/chroot/etc
[root@adept etc]# mv named.conf named.conf.fracked
[root@adept etc]# ln -s ../var/named/named.conf .
[root@adept etc]# ls -la ../var/named/named.conf
-rw-r----- 1 root named 4920 2009-08-27 00:13 ../var/named/named.conf
[root@adept etc]# service named restart
Stopping named:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]
[root@adept etc]#
[root@adept etc]# host 192.168.4.120
120.4.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer blast-4-120.internal.excfb.com.

Now what was I doing before I fell down this rat hole?

I'm waiting on a build to finish, playing a little bit of WorldOfGoo, and I notice that my Sun Ray is no longer connected to the server. Strange.

I've also lost connection to the other server in my data closet. Now, I know the battery on the UPS back there is almost dead, a brownout the other day caused a reboot. I go and check and they are okay.

I look at my Rosewill 8-Port Gigabit Switch and wonder if I loosened something when I connected my MacBook Air to it earlier that night. Nope, but then I wonder why only half the links seem active. I confirm my data closet punches into one of the silent links. I try moving it, but I don't have anything labeled, so who knows how well that is going to work.

I happen to have a spare Rosewill sitting there (good deal at NewEgg.com a couple of years ago), so I swap it in. And sure enough, the data closet is back.

I think the old Rosewill had been going of late. I'd noticed some strange hangs to web sites on one of my machines and not the other.

I'm still happy with the units - I've got another servicing another data closet. And the one that failed had been on for probably 18 months straight.