I have a weird problem. I'm using the DNS Manager to create a cname for Google Apps configuration. Here are the last few lines from the rendered weblaws.org record:

api    CNAME   weblaws.org.
cite   CNAME   weblaws.org.
gmail  CNAME   ghs.google.com.

The first two cname's resolve just fine. The last one, added per Google's instructions, does not; queries return NXDOMAIN.

Does the Linode DNS server implement some kind of CNAME restriction against pointers to domains not under one's control? Is there a way around this?

Thanks!

Hmm, looks good from here:

$ dig gmail.weblaws.org

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> gmail.weblaws.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3392
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gmail.weblaws.org.             IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gmail.weblaws.org.      86341   IN      CNAME   ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com.         86341   IN      CNAME   ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com.       241     IN      A       74.125.95.121

;; Query time: 170 msec
;; SERVER: 205.133.7.2#53(205.133.7.2)
;; WHEN: Sat May 22 03:34:12 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 99

Thanks a lot! It's probably TTLs of the SOA records, or something like that on my end.

When you're dealing with resolvers in the wild not seeing domain changes, dig +trace is my favorite tool for the job. With it, you can see if we're serving what you expect by asking directly.

11:49 jsmith@upsidedown$ dig +short @ns1.linode.com cname gmail.weblaws.org
ghs.google.com.

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Disclaimer: I am no longer employed by Linode; opinions are my own alone.