Applying dynamic BIND zones fails with NDC error

Submitted by Locutus on Sat, 05/28/2011 - 16:56

Trying to apply changes to a dynamic BIND zone fails:

NDC command failed : rndc: 'reload' failed: dynamic zone

Actually, to reload a dynamic zone, it must be "freezed" first.

root@lyra:~# rndc freeze test.tianet.de
root@lyra:~# rndc reload test.tianet.de
zone reload queued
root@lyra:~# rndc thaw test.tianet.de
The zone reload and thaw was successful.

"Dynamic" means, in case you don't know, that the allow-update directive is set, enabling dynamic changes to the zone using DNS Update requests as defined in RFC 2136. I use that e.g. for my own "dyndns"-style service.

EDIT: Gah, I just noticed the large friendly "Freeze Zone" button in the zone overview window. Please disregard this report. Although -- maybe you might consider automatically freezing and thawing dynamic zones to apply changes, in addition to the manual button. :)

Status: 
Closed (fixed)

Comments

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sat, 05/28/2011 - 21:02

Good idea .. I can't see why zones shouldn't be frozen and then thawed on reload. I will add this to the next Webmin release.

Submitted by Locutus on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 06:26

Hmm.. Actually there is an issue with that which just came to mind...

When you freeze a dynamic zone which was updated thru DNS, the update journal gets replayed to the zone file, and any manual edits made to it since the last thaw will be lost. I just tested that.

So, before manually editing a dynamic zone, it needs to be frozen. Maybe you might change the behavior accordingly: either show a warning, or auto-freeze the zone, before entering the manual edit screens.

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 20:53

That's unfortunate .. it sounds like Webmin would have to be continually freezing the zone in order to show the records that are actually in use by BIND.

Submitted by Locutus on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:23

If you wanted to show exactly what BIND currently uses, yeah. But I guess that won't be necessary, since when I define a dynamic zone, I know (or rather should know) what I'm doing, so I should be aware that what Webmin shows does not necessarily reflect the current state.

Maybe it will suffice if an automatic freeze/thaw is done whenever an actual editing is made to the zone, and a warning message on the overview screen that the contents shown there are not necessarily up to date.

Submitted by Issues on Mon, 06/13/2011 - 16:24

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.