** server can't find hostname.com nxdomain

Question

I am trying to set up an apache web server on my vm and im running into some issues. When I do an 'nslookup' on the hostname of the machine this is what I get:

nslookup rhel64.xxxxx.xxxxx.com
Server:         xxx.xxx.32.1
Address:        xxx.xxx.32.1#53

** server can't find rhel64.xxxxx.xxxxx.com: NXDOMAIN

I'm sure this is a common problem but I'm not sure how to fix it. It seems that dnsmasq can't resolve the hostname. Adding the hostname to /etc/hosts doesn't fix it. Running on an RHEL6.4 machine. Thanks in advance.

Bo

Answer 1

You should use a DNS server that is able to resolve the name; the one you are using now, at xxx.xxx.32.1, isn't.

Adding the hostname to /etc/hosts doesn't fix it.

This is because nslookup does a DNS lookup always, it does not read the hosts file. Try using getent instead, for example I get:

$ getent hosts rhel64.xxxxx.xxxxx.com
176.74.176.178  rhel64.xxxxx.xxxxx.com

(By the way, you should use example.com as an example almost always, so you don't inadvertently link to adult-only websites)

Header

Are you the sysadmin for the DNS server? getent hosts looks up names from the different services available to the system in the order specified in /etc/nsswitch.conf, make sure the line for "hosts" says "files" before "dns" – Header

Is there a way to add the name to a dns conf file so where it CAN resolve it? If not what would be an alternate DNS server? – Bo

I am the sysadmin yes – Bo

getent now returns the host name of the vm. Still not able to test an html file from the browser – Bo

If getent is able to resolve the name so is Firefox. It's possible that Apache is not well configured. What error do you get? dnsmasq reads the ip-to-host assignments from /etc/hosts and from other files you specify, depending on settings in the config file or on the command line. – Header

I created a simple html file that I use for reference. When I type in hostname/index.html I get a time out error in the browser as well as the error listed in the initial question – Bo

Since I am only testing, dnsmasq is what were staying with. Any idea on how to fix it without changing the DNS server? – Bo