LKBEN11638: How to find the authoritative DNS server for a certain domain?

Symptom

You need to find the SOA (= Source of Authority) for a domain name.

Cause

Used for troubleshooting DNS.

Solution

To find the ip address of a domain name, you can use nslookup on Windows. Most of the time you will get a "NON-authoritative answer". To find the responsible server for the domain, you need to ask for the SOA. This can be done as follows:

nslookup -type=soa lubby.org

The answer will look like:

C:\Users\peeterwi>nslookup -type=soa lubby.org
Server:  ws01.keskon.local
Address:  192.168.129.203

Nicht autorisierende Antwort:
lubby.org
        primary name server = dns.dns1.de
        responsible mail addr = hostmaster.internetwire.de
        serial  = 2014071508
        refresh = 28800 (8 hours)
        retry   = 7200 (2 hours)
        expire  = 604800 (7 days)
        default TTL = 86400 (1 day)

dns.dns1.de     internet address = 95.130.16.246
dns.dns1.de     AAAA IPv6 address = 2a02:2940:0:a0d1::246

Here you will find the "primary name server". If you asks this server, you will get an autoritative answer.

nslookup lubby.org dns.dns1.de

Have fun.

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this document is intended for your information only. Lubby makes no claims to the validity of this information. Use of this information is at own risk!

About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.

Latest update: 18/01/2023