Help with OS X server and DNS

[Farley2k]

Backgroud: I took a new job where they have two MAC OS X servers running their web page and mail service. This is in Cedar Rapids, IA - which (if you are in the US) you may have heard flooded this spring. So now our servers are at a new location and the person I took the job from is long gone.

My problem is that the MAC running DNS (the mail server) can't seem to resolve addresses anymore. Web surfing doesn't work and when trying to send mail the server returns "host could not be found" messages.

This server is on a DMZ behind a firewall and I have two other windows servers on the same DMZ - and they can browse the Internet. So I think it has to be a problem with the MAC configuration rather than the switch or the firewall.

The MAC is using itself as the DNS server and I assume that is the problem, but it was working before (and I certainly didn't change anything) so I don't really know what could be wrong.

What should I be checking to trouble shoot my DNS issues? What files do I need to be looking at to figure out if the MAC is somehow pointed wrong?

Help!

Thanks

 

[ViRGE]

Even though you're on a DMZ, I would check to make sure that the Mac can use all ports. The recent major BIND patch changed DNS queries to use all ports as a further random element against fake replies, and a lot of people found that their firewalls started blocking these queries since they no longer came from a single port. It could be your firewall appliance or even the server's own software firewall (if it's running one) that's causing the issue.