Setup on Dreamcompute not working

Help with Setup/Upgrade
1

Hi,

I am exploring to set this up with dreamcompute from dreamhost but cannot get the DNS right.
My domain at Gandi is overlaet.com
I have an fixed ip on dreamcompute 67.205.62.62
have set the glue records ns1.box.overlaet.com, ns2.box.overlaet.com
DNS1 and DNS2 are ns1.box.overlaet.com, ns2.box.overlaet.com

dreamcompute use a cloudconfig
but I made sure that hostname -f returns a valid FQDN even after reboot

box.overlaet.com

but the outcome from my terminal worries me:

host -t ns overlaet.com
overlaet.com name server ns1.box.overlaet.com.
overlaet.com name server ns2.box.overlaet.com.

Fine by so far but: “host ns1.box.overlaet.com” gives:

ns1.box.overlaet.com has address 67.205.62.62
Host ns1.box.overlaet.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host ns1.box.overlaet.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Are my ports open ? sudo nmap -sS -p 20-1000 67.205.62.62

Starting Nmap 6.47 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2015-05-29 16:56 CEST 
Nmap scan report for ip-67-205-62-62.nodes.dreamcompute.net (67.205.62.62)
Host is up (0.17s latency).
Not shown: 974 filtered ports
PORT    STATE SERVICE
22/tcp  open  ssh
25/tcp  open  smtp
53/tcp  open  domain
80/tcp  open  http
443/tcp open  https
587/tcp open  submission
993/tcp open  imaps

the nodes.dreamcompute.net part worries me.
So I did a dig -x 67.205.62.62

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> -x 67.205.62.62
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55085
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa.	IN	PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 14392 IN	PTR	ip-67-205-62-62.nodes.dreamcompute.net.

I don’t think mail-in-a-box is going to work on dreamcompute
Does anybody got more DNS knowledge to workaround this ?

Kind Regards,

2

I am in talk with the helpdesk and find out why I can’t reach the extra mile…
I ask them to add the PTR record

Hello,

Just fiddled around back and forth and maybe you can set this somehow and see
if we get a step closer ?
62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 1800 IN PTR box.overlaet.com.

Responce:

I added the overlaet.com domain to DNS only hosting, and added an A
record for “box” to the floating ip. It has updated reverse dns:

zone(62.205.67.in-addr.arpa)->_save_records : removing 62 PTR
ip-67-205-62-62.nodes.dreamcompute.net.
zone(62.205.67.in-addr.arpa)->_save_records : adding 62 PTR
box.overlaet.com.

and should resolve properly within around 4 hours. Please keep in mind
this is kind of a workaround and not a real offered feature, so it could
disappear in the future but for now we have no expectations on changing
its behavior.

Result: dig -x 67.205.62.62

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> -x 67.205.62.62
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 20814
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa.	IN	PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 14400 IN	PTR	box.overlaet.com.

;; Query time: 115 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.88.1#53(192.168.88.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Jun  4 12:45:59 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 73
3

YMMV, but my experience with Dreamcompute has not been very good. I had alot of problems with ssh keys and stability.

I’ve had much better experience with Digital Ocean, Ramnode, Linode, Vultr, etc. I still use dreamhost for the S3 compatible object store tho.

4

Hi,

I have send them my config files and the SOA stuff to understand the issue I’m working on.
They have replied with the message below.
Now I’m not an expert ether but I’m kinda stuck in the middle and really want this to work.

All I know that if you leave everything alone and only point the PTR to the hostname it will be all fine. Not being very theoretical.

Hello,

I really think to revert your changes and just add the PTR part.
Like I showed you in my previous mail the difference between Digital Ocean
and Dreamhost. I’m running my own authoritative name server here.

Reply:

I may just not understand some of the more complex DNS systems, so sorry
if I’m incorrect here. I’ll do a bit more research on this. From my
current knowledge, the reverse dns record has nothing at all to do with
the domain registration, or what the authoritative nameservers are, or
anything that you need to setup at all. The owner of the ip address
block has to setup the reverse DNS entries, and then these are queried
during a reverse dns lookup. I believe there are setups where the PTR
records can be delegated to other name servers, but we don’t have any way
to setup such a thing.

If you are querying your own authorative name servers for the reverse dns
lookup, this could provide different results.

For example, I just added this domain that isn’t registered and doesn’t
exist into my account, and setup reverse dns for it in our system for my
floating ip.

zone(60.205.67.in-addr.arpa)->_save_records : removing 66 PTR
ip-67-205-60-66.nodes.dreamcompute.net.
zone(60.205.67.in-addr.arpa)->_save_records : adding 66 PTR
reversedns.thisdomainnamedoesntexistandwillstillwork.com.

If I was to wait a few hours and try again, reverse dns on 67.205.205.60
should come back with
reversedns.thisdomainnamedoesntexistandwillstillwork.com. It didn’t
depend on the domain being registered, or having any working dns.

If I’m wrong I would be happy to correct my knowledge of this feature.

What must I reply on this ?

5

This is correct:

Reverse DNS is completely different from the rest of the DNS configuration.

6

Is there something I can do on my part ?

edit: This below is before I ask the helpdesk for add the PTR stuff

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 14345 IN PTR ip-67-205-62-62.nodes.dreamcompute.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 86344 IN NS ns1.dreamhost.com.
62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 86344 IN NS ns2.dreamhost.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.dreamhost.com. 172703 IN A 66.33.206.206
ns2.dreamhost.com. 172703 IN A 208.97.182.10

This is after:

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> -x 67.205.62.62
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 6651
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa.	IN	PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
62.62.205.67.in-addr.arpa. 10089 IN	PTR	box.overlaet.com.

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.88.1#53(192.168.88.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Jun  5 16:06:10 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 73
7

Your reverse DNS is correct now.