Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide

`named [pid]: hostname.domainname has CNAME and other data (illegal)`

Cause

On the DNS server, the error message is displayed.

Action

This error indicates that an alias (CNAME) is associated with another type of DNS record.

The DNS system allow you to set up an alias to a system using the CNAME record. An example of this is:

alias1		IN CNAME	host1.domain1.

The alias alias1 cannot appear in any other type of record. Only the actual name of the host may be used. So, if you wanted to use this host as a mail exhanger, the record:

alias1		IN MX  10  host2.domain1.

would be illegal and would produce the error.

Instead, you should use

host1		IN MX  10  host2.domain1.

This goes for all types of records, including HINFO and A records.

Also, it is possible to get this error without explicitly setting the left hand side of a record. The DNS system defaults the left hand side to the last given left hand side. So you might have the following in a named database file:

host1	IN A	 123.124.125.126
        IN HINFO Sun Solaris
alias1  IN CNAME host1.domain1.
        IN MX 10 host2.domain1.

In this fragment, there is an implied alias1 in the left hand side of the MX record. If the alias was added after the database was in use for a while, the error would suddenly start showing up. Since the MX record was legal until the CNAME was added in front of it. This example could be fixed either by reversing the order of the MX and CNAME records, or explicitly giving the host1 in the lefthand side of the MX record.