MisterX Tech

This little script (sorry for the formatting..I really need to clean up these scripts in worldpress) can start the debug process for slow DNS queries. It could also be used, witn a little work, to populate a graph if you see frequent issues.

#!/bin/bash
NS=$YOUR_NAME_SERVER_HERE
DOMAIN=Domain your testing with
for i in {1..100} ; do 
   dig @$NS $DOMAIN | awk -F: '/Query/ {print $2}';
   sleep 1 ; 
done

A server under load will be all over the place. I recently helped someone with this issue where a nameserver was going into swap and was causing VERY slow (900+ ms) NS lookups. I start with a domain the server is auth for as that should be fastest and have the lowest network load but if you dont know any be prepared for a slow response or two as the server populates its cache.
Here is what I saw from a test on a non-auth domain for a server that is local:

151 msec
0 msec
0 msec
1 msec

and for a domain that the server is auth for…

0 msec
0 msec

and against a remote DNS server at google…

101 msec
26 msec
27 msec
25 msec
24 msec


I have begun building on this to help troubleshoot further as to where the latency exists. Just a quick 5 min hack I did that helped someone that might help someone else.