Nsd-4.1.15: problems parsing a zone file

NSD
1

Hi,

after updating nsd from version 4.1.14 to version 4.1.15 I have the
following error messages in the nsd logfile upon startup:

[2017-02-27 10:09:12.347] nsd[18850]: notice: nsd starting (NSD 4.1.15)
[2017-02-27 10:09:12.348] nsd[18852]: error: home.mydomain.org.zone:8:
serial is expected
[2017-02-27 10:09:12.348] nsd[18852]: error: home.mydomain.org.zone:13:
zone configured as 'home.mydomain.org' has no SOA record.
[2017-02-27 10:09:12.348] nsd[18852]: error: zone home.mydomain.org
file home.mydomain.org.zone read with 2 errors
[2017-02-27 10:09:12.360] nsd[18852]: notice: nsd started (NSD 4.1.15),
pid 18851

The same zone file was read without errors with nsd-4.1.14 and older
versions:

[2017-02-27 09:38:22.128] nsd[17816]: notice: nsd starting (NSD 4.1.14)
[2017-02-27 09:38:22.140] nsd[17818]: notice: nsd started (NSD 4.1.14),
pid 17817

nsd-checkzone from version 4.1.15 also reports the above errors whereas
nsd-checkzone from 4.1.14 does not report any errors.

Here is the corresponding zone file:

# cat /var/lib/nsd/home.mydomain.org.zone
$TTL 600
@ IN SOA ns4.mydomain.org. polynomial-c.gmx.de. (
    201702270932 ; Serial
    14400 ; Refresh
    1800 ; Retry
    604800 ; Expire
    86400 ; Minimum
    )

@ IN NS ns4.mydomain.org.

@ IN A 85.212.112.110

I am quite new to DNS servers and its configuration so it might also be
my config being broken. But searching the web and reading the
documentation didn't bring me to a working solution so now I'm here :slight_smile:

Please CC me on replies as I am not subscribed to this list.

Thanks in advance
kind regards
Lars

2

Hi Lars,

4.1.15 refuses to load illegally large serial numbers. This number is
then larger than the 32bits that we have to store it in. Older NSD
would not actually store that number. And in 4.1.15 we fixed it that
impossible numbers are not parsed.

201702270932 is too large, your serial number.
4000000000 - that is 4 billion.

usually people have year+month+day+counterfrom1to100.
there is no space for year+month+day+hour+minute.

I have changed the code to print:
error: home.mydomain.org.zone:8: serial is expected or serial too big

Best regards, Wouter

3

Hi Wouter,

thank you very much for your thorough explanation.
I have truncated the serial number and now nsd-4.1.15 works as expected.

Once again thanks for your help.

Kind regards
Lars