DNS dig command line tool returns "status: SERVFAIL". should I be worried?

Matt picture Matt · Jun 16, 2010 · Viewed 16.1k times · Source

Background: I've setup a site on Squarespace, got a domain on domain.com, used domain.com's DNS manager to create CNAME for squarespace (like they recommend).

I changed the nameservers yesterday to slicehost (a failed experiment) and back to domain.com's tonight. Now when I run a dig, I get the following:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> veganhopeworkshop.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 54930
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;veganhopeworkshop.com.         IN      A

;; Query time: 300 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 15 23:23:02 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 39

Does the "status: SERVFAIL" indicate anything wrong about my configuration?

Answer

Alnitak picture Alnitak · Jun 16, 2010

At the time of writing (09:30 GMT on 16th June) none of the three name servers at domain.com (ns1, ns2 and ns3.domain.com) are correctly serving your zone.

% dig +norec @ns3.domain.com. veganhopeworkshop.com ns

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> +norec @ns3.domain.com. veganhopeworkshop.com ns
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52861
;; flags: qr; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 13, ADDITIONAL: 13

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;veganhopeworkshop.com.     IN  NS
...

So, in the first instance, you need to talk to them to find out why not.