Topic: finding where sme server changed dns ip address number

[purvis]

I had some problems on an upto date  sme 8 server.
At some point in the recent past, my sme updates quit happening, which i have set to manual updates in the server-manager panel.
The anti software updates where not happening either as seen in my email to the admin. I do not look at admin emails often.

There was a dns ip server number in the server manager panel where you can place a corporate dns ip server number.
Other servers had blanks but this server had a number.
I did not write the dns ip number down while clearing the number out.
Before I give any any other information out and start saying the sky is falling.
Is there any way that I might be able to find out where it change or what the number was in a log file.
I could not ping the dns ip number that was in the box.
The ip number did not seem to represent any dns address that i was familiar with.
So if there is a place in the logs where i can find that, i would appreciate help with it.
My system is now running like it should.
I do not know how the dns ip number got put in the corporate dns settings as seen in the server-manager panel under domains.

We run the sme servers in server mode to mostly use file sharing or i am sure this problem would of had much more negative  effect.

Thanks

[purvis]

Found my problem.
Had I just tried to ping an internet url site. I would of seen that my sme server could not see external addresses.

Apparently many many years ago I must of put in the dns ip address number of our service provider not knowing better or for some reason.
It was an AT&T dns server ip address number and we had dsl for many many years.
That server either went down or refused my dns lookup from my current internet service at some point recently.
We are no longer on AT&T for years now but on Cox Cable.

Years ago Charlie told me to not put anything there in the corporate setting from the control panel and he said it was not needed.
I remember him writing that. I do not know how that got there. Maybe we were having some kind of issues, but it has been a lot of years.

I found an hint on how to view the information that I was needing from another thread.
I am not sure if this is how you do such things but it game me what i was needing.

see a list of the files to view and pick one

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ls -l /var/log/dnscache.forwarder/
here was my listing

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total 44544
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998030 Jan 30 23:14 @4000000056ad985401690004.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998072 Jan 31 15:49 @4000000056ae81863a68d7bc.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998070 Feb  1 08:11 @4000000056af679d11d4f2f4.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998050 Feb  2 00:39 @4000000056b04f462bde8d7c.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998050 Feb  2 13:44 @4000000056b107400ab9e344.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998059 Feb  3 03:36 @4000000056b1ca370893c33c.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998023 Feb  3 20:19 @4000000056b2b528128f0f7c.s
-rwxr--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 4998077 Feb  4 10:12 @4000000056b3786027b74e14.s
-rw-r--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 2126063 Feb  4 17:03 @4000000056b40a7109fc9654.u
-rw-r--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog 3364864 Feb  5 01:10 current
-rw------- 1 dnslog dnslog       0 Sep 11  2014 lock
-rw-r--r-- 1 dnslog dnslog       0 Feb  4 20:35 state

view the current file

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sudo cat /var/log/dnscache.forwarder/current | sudo perl /service/dnscache/dnscache-log.pl | tai64nlocal | less

view a file from a couple of days back, i had rebooted with post-ugrade many times

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sudo cat /var/log/dnscache.forwarder/@4000000056ad985401690004.s | sudo perl /service/dnscache/dnscache-log.pl | tai64nlocal | less

Here are two lines that were similar in older files.
I found the dns ip address number 205.152.132.23 which was set as the corporate dns ip address number I was looking for and believe to be it from my memory.

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2016-02-04 20:35:34.241792500 query 10 127.0.0.2:58503:59862 aaaa mirrorlist.centos.org.
2016-02-04 20:35:34.241806500 tx 0 aaaa mirrorlist.centos.org. . 205.152.132.23

once again, I cleared the corporate dns ip address number in the server-manger panel under the domains section.

[purvis]

My problems were confusing to me with the way we use our sme servers as a server only.
I was trying to do updates and it was not happening.
Running from a console and using the yum clean all and yum update command, i was not getting anywhere.
I figured that maybe somehow the depositories some how got bad and tried many many times to fix my problem by resetting the depositories.

Well if only I just pinged an outside url site such as google.com and seen there was not returning ping might of set me on a different approach to my problem.
I looked in the /etc/resolv.conf file for what might be an answer but it was good.

Well anyway I have worked on this problem to find a solution without asking anybody here.
Some times the most simply things are the problems and we look for the most difficult.

Well being it is Mardi Gras now in Louisiana. It is appropriate to say, "Hail King Charlie".

[CharlieBrady]

There was a dns ip server number in the server manager panel where you can place a corporate dns ip server number.

Unless your server is actually within a corporate network, and there is a "slit DNS" configuration, where a private DNS server manages private names, then you shouldn't fill in any IP address in that slot.

Is there any way that I might be able to find out where it change or what the number was in a log file.

If the logs have not rotated away, you will find OLD and NEW records matching "dnscache=" in /var/log/messages.*

I could not ping the dns ip number that was in the box.

That doesn't tell you a lot - many hosts are configured to not respond to ping.

My system is now running like it should.

Good, so there is nothing for you to fix.

I found the dns ip address number 205.152.132.23 which was set as the corporate dns ip address number

That's:

dns.msy.bellsouth.net.

That's not a corporate DNS server, but a public resolver for bellsouth customers. Or at least it was, a long time ago. You don't need to use it.

[purvis]

Thanks for taking time to review and write Charlie