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Accepted
Pierre
Asked: 2010-10-19 23:33:53 +0800 CST

How does DNS resolution work when the nameservers for a domain are hosts in the domain?

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Quick question about the DNS protocol, which I didn't really understand. Let's take a website, say google.com. I type the address in my browser.

The DNS resolver will check the root servers, the GTLD servers. Which will say, if I understand well, "hey, check nsX.google.com to get your answer".

But in that case, how does the resolver know the IP for nsX.google.com, if the answer is held by the nsX.google.com servers themselves ?

disco:~ Disco$ dig +trace ns1.google.com

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> +trace ns1.google.com
;; global options: +cmd
.           50181   IN  NS  j.root-servers.net.
[...]
.           50181   IN  NS  a.root-servers.net.
;; Received 449 bytes from 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1) in 55 ms

com.            172800  IN  NS  a.gtld-servers.net.
[...]
com.            172800  IN  NS  m.gtld-servers.net.
;; Received 495 bytes from 199.7.83.42#53(l.root-servers.net) in 165 ms

google.com.     172800  IN  NS  ns2.google.com.
google.com.     172800  IN  NS  ns1.google.com.
google.com.     172800  IN  NS  ns3.google.com.
google.com.     172800  IN  NS  ns4.google.com.
;; Received 164 bytes from 192.31.80.30#53(d.gtld-servers.net) in 219 ms

ns1.google.com.     345600  IN  A   216.239.32.10
;; Received 48 bytes from 216.239.32.10#53(ns1.google.com) in 70 ms

Thanks.

domain-name-system

2 Answers

  1. You have authoritative servers (on which the zones are defined) but root servers know which domains are registered on which servers.

    In short, you get the "where is ns1.google.com" from a.gtld-servers.net:

    $ dig @a.gtld-servers.net. ns1.google.com

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1 <<>> @a.gtld-servers.net. ns1.google.com
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 19654
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ns1.google.com.                        IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
google.com.             172800  IN      NS      ns2.google.com.
google.com.             172800  IN      NS      ns1.google.com.
google.com.             172800  IN      NS      ns3.google.com.
google.com.             172800  IN      NS      ns4.google.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns2.google.com.         172800  IN      A       216.239.34.10
ns1.google.com.         172800  IN      A       216.239.32.10
ns3.google.com.         172800  IN      A       216.239.36.10
ns4.google.com.         172800  IN      A       216.239.38.10

;; Query time: 139 msec
;; SERVER: 192.5.6.30#53(192.5.6.30)
;; WHEN: Tue Oct 19 09:39:25 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 164
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  2. Best Answer

    This apparent cyclic dependency is resolved by using what are known as "glue" records.

    See this answer.

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