DnsMonitor

This monitor is build to test the availability of the DNS service on remote IP interfaces. The monitor tests the service availability by sending a DNS query for A resource record types against the DNS server to test.

The monitor is marked as up if the DNS Server is able to send a valid response to the monitor. For multiple records it is possible to test if the number of responses are within a given boundary.

The monitor can be simulated with the command line tool host:

~ % host -v -t a www.google.com 8.8.8.8
Trying "www.google.com"
Using domain server:
Name: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53
Aliases:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 9324
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.google.com.			IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.google.com.		283	IN	A	74.125.232.17
www.google.com.		283	IN	A	74.125.232.20
www.google.com.		283	IN	A	74.125.232.19
www.google.com.		283	IN	A	74.125.232.16
www.google.com.		283	IN	A	74.125.232.18

Received 112 bytes from 8.8.8.8#53 in 41 ms

TIP: This monitor is intended for testing the availability of a DNS service. If you want to monitor the DNS resolution of some of your nodes from a client’s perspective, please use the DNSResolutionMonitor.

Monitor Facts

Class Name

org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.DnsMonitor

Remote Enabled

true

Configuration and Use

Table 1. Monitor specific parameters for the DnsMonitor
Parameter Description Required Default value

retry

Number of retries before the service is marked as down

optional

0

timeout

Time in milliseconds to wait for the A Record response from the server

optional

5000

port

UDP Port for the DNS server

optional

53

lookup

DNS A Record for lookup test

optional

localhost

fatal-response-codes

A comma-separated list of numeric DNS response codes that will be considered fatal if present in the server’s response. Default value is 2 corresponds to Server Failed. A list of codes and their meanings is found in RFC 2929

optional

2

min-answers

Minmal number of records in the DNS server respone for the given lookup

optional

-

max-answers

Maximal number of records in the DNS server respone for the given lookup

optional

-

This monitor implements the Common Configuration Parameters.

Examples

The given examples shows how to monitor if the IP interface from a given DNS server resolves a DNS request. This service should be bound to a DNS server which should be able to give a valid DNS respone for DNS request www.google.com. The service is up if the DNS server gives between 1 and 10 A record responses.

Example configuration monitoring DNS request for a given server for www.google.com
<service name="DNS-www.google.com" interval="300000" user-defined="false" status="on">
    <parameter key="lookup" value="www.google.com" />
    <parameter key="fatal-response-code" value="2" />
    <parameter key="min-answers" value="1" />
    <parameter key="max-answers" value="10" />
</service>

<monitor service="DNS-www.google.com" class-name="org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.DnsMonitor" />