Why aren't Linode nameservers returning expected results?
Linode
Linode Staff
When I use ns1.linode.com's IP address in my /etc/resolv.conf, I get an error trying to ping downloads.wordpress.org:
ping: downloads.wordpress.org: Temporary failure in name resolution.
When I place 8.8.8.8 on top of:
nameserver 162.159.27.72
nameserver 162.159.24.39
nameserver 162.159.25.129
nameserver 162.159.26.99
nameserver 162.159.24.25
The error is no longer there. Shouldn't your nameservers know where downloads.wordpress.org is?
1 Reply
dsmith
Linode Staff
So our nameservers are actually for pointing to DNS zone files hosted on Linode, not for general DNS queries. What this means is that our nameservers will only resolve domains which have records hosted via our DNS Manager.
For example, here is a comparison of downloads.wordpress.org with a domain I know is hosted on Linode's DNS system:
dsmith:~$ dig @ns1.linode.com linode.com +short
69.164.200.202
72.14.191.202
72.14.180.202
dsmith:~$ dig @ns1.linode.com downloads.wordpress.com +short
dsmith:~$
As you can see, our nameservers are storing the domain's information since we actively host records on Linode. On the other-hand, we have no reason to host DNS files for downloads.wordpress.org, so it will not be resolved. This would change if the owner of that domain decided to add it to the DNS Manager.
What you'll need to do is use our resolvers instead of our nameservers. Each Linode has a list of resolvers it can access based on its data center, and that list can be found on the remote access page.
You may find our guide on how DNS works to be helpful if you'd like to know more about DNS:
https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/dns/dns-records-an-introduction/#how-dns-works