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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