NSD returns SERVFAIL instead of REFUSED

NSD
1

I was wondering why NSD returns SERVFAIL for recursive queries, normally it is REFUSED ?

NSD:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 39603
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

BIND:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 4023
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

Is it configurable ? At least I could not find any options.

Thanks,
Arun

2

a message of 55 lines which said:

I was wondering why NSD returns SERVFAIL for recursive queries,
normally it is REFUSED ?

AFAIK, no RFC explicitely says what a name server should return when
it does not accept out-of-zone queries.

3

a message of 55 lines which said:
    
    > I was wondering why NSD returns SERVFAIL for recursive queries,
    > normally it is REFUSED ?
    
    AFAIK, no RFC explicitely says what a name server should return when
    it does not accept out-of-zone queries.

It is discussed somewhat in the document "differences.tex" (differences
between bind & nsd) and the RQUIREMENTS document (Appendix B.1).

  jaap

4

Yeah, Thanks for the response, I got it clear

Appendix B Details on specific design and implementation choices.

B.1. Returning the root delegation when no answer can be found

From RFC1034/1035 it is not obvious if returning a root delegation
is a (non-)requirement for authoritative servers.

We have decided not to implement a root-hints since an
authoritative server should in normal circumstances only receive
queries for which the server is authoritative.

Also see RFC 1123 section 6.1.2.5.

Whenever an answer cannot been provided we return a SERVFAIL. It
has been argued that this is a policy decision and thus a REFUSE
should be returned. However, in the spirit of RFC1034/1035 a server
should return cached data, if that cache cannot be reached a SERVFAIL
is an appropriate response.

Also see the discussion on the ‘namedroppers list’ Starting April
2002 with subject "name server without root cache "
(ftp://ops.ietf.org/pub/lists/)

./arun