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Reverse DNS lookup check not working

4 messages in this thread

list Sebastian Auriol · Fri, 5 Apr 2013 12:30:01 +0100 ·
There seems to be a bug where DNS PTR (Reverse DNS lookup) checks do not
work in Xymon (4.3.7, but I don't recall seeing any fixes in the commits).
The man page for hosts.cfg says the format to use is:
 dns=TYPE:lookup
and one of the examples underneath for TYPE is PTR (reverse).  I have tried
this in small and capitals and neither work (the result is Name not found).
Using A does work though.
I wonder if it could be related to the fact that DiG needs to be invoked
with -x for PTR checks.  A quick look at the DiG man page suggests you could
use either:
# dig -t PTR my.ip.ad.dr.ess
Or:
# dig my.ip.ad.dr.ess PTR
However, this is not the case.  A closer looks reveals you have to use:
# dig -x my.ip.ad.dr.ess
So what I am saying is that the treatment for type PTR differs from the
other types, and that the parameters supplied to DiG (if Xymon uses DiG )
differ for PTR.
 
Tested manually with DiG 9.2.4 and the latest RHEL5:
9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-20.P1.el5_8.6.

Kind regards, 

SebA
list Jeremy Laidman · Mon, 8 Apr 2013 00:34:26 +1000 ·
quoted from Sebastian Auriol
On 5 April 2013 22:30, SebA <user-4631430d620a@xymon.invalid> wrote:
**
I wonder if it could be related to the fact that DiG needs to be invoked
with -x for PTR checks.
Not required for PTR checks.
quoted from Sebastian Auriol

  A quick look at the DiG man page suggests you could use either:
# dig -t PTR my.ip.ad.dr.ess
Or:
 # dig my.ip.ad.dr.ess PTR
No, it's more like this:

# dig ess.addr.ip.my.in-addr.arpa PTR
quoted from Sebastian Auriol

However, this is not the case.  A closer looks reveals you have to use:
 # dig -x my.ip.ad.dr.ess
The -x option is a convenience, and it means not only "set type to PTR" but
also "reverse octets and append 'in-addr.arpa'".

I'm not in a position to check until tomorrow, but I'm confident that I
successfully test for the localhost address like so

  DNS=PTR:1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa

J
list Jeremy Laidman · Mon, 8 Apr 2013 11:32:23 +1000 ·
quoted from Jeremy Laidman
On 8 April 2013 00:34, Jeremy Laidman <user-71895fb2e44c@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I'm not in a position to check until tomorrow, but I'm confident that I
successfully test for the localhost address like so

  DNS=PTR:1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa
I was wrong in the IP address that I test, but correct in the format and
the fact that it works.  You should be able to do PTR record checks by
formatting in this "in-addr.arpa" format.  An easy way to get this is from
the output of "dig -x" which shows the question section in the
"in-addr.arpa" format (and also in the answer section if it resolves).

J
list Sebastian Auriol · Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:30:20 +0100 ·
Thanks Jeremy, that's awesome.  There were no examples for PTR on Xymon out
there so this may help others too.  It works and thanks for the explanation.

Kind regards, 

SebA  
quoted from Jeremy Laidman
  

From: Jeremy Laidman [mailto:user-71895fb2e44c@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: 08 April 2013 02:32
To: SebA
Cc: xymon
Subject: Re: [Xymon] Reverse DNS lookup check not working


On 8 April 2013 00:34, Jeremy Laidman <user-71895fb2e44c@xymon.invalid> wrote:


I'm not in a position to check until tomorrow, but I'm confident that I
successfully test for the localhost address like so


  DNS=PTR:1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa


I was wrong in the IP address that I test, but correct in the format and the
fact that it works.  You should be able to do PTR record checks by
formatting in this "in-addr.arpa" format.  An easy way to get this is from
the output of "dig -x" which shows the question section in the
"in-addr.arpa" format (and also in the answer section if it resolves).

J