2nd copy of named is dying

[Matthew Seaman]

On Thu, Oct 09, 2003 at 02:50:20PM -0700, Rich Morin wrote:
> I run two copies of named(8), out of /etc/rc.network:
> 
>   ${named_program:-named} ${named_flags} /etc/namedb/named.conf
>   ${named_program:-named} ${named_flags} /etc/namedb/lan/named.conf
> 
> This seems to work fine, except that the second instance of named
> occasionally (like, once a month) disappears.  Any suggestions as
> to how to track down the reason for this?

What does named(8) write into the system logs?  Does the failing
named(8) show any symptoms, like slowing down or sucking up huge
amounts of memory before it falls over?  Does it leave a core file?

This sort of thing can be tricky to deal with until you get some sort
of inkling about what is going wrong.  Your best recourse until then
is simply to increase the logging levels, turn on query logging and so
forth.  Keep scanning the log output and see if you can correlate
named.conf failures with what happens in the log files.  Look at the
documentation on the logging command in named.conf to see how to do
that: /usr/share/doc/bind/html/logging.html

One possibility is simply that your system is running out of swap
space, at which point the kernel will kill the largest process (that
this has happened should be obvious from the system log).  It should
be fairly simple to pick up shortness of VM resources by using
vmstat(8), or by running top(1) or systat(8).  named(8) also has
configuration commands to allow it to control how much memory it does
use.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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