[Dnsmasq-discuss] dnsmasq unresponsive to /etc/hosts queries during WAN network outages

[Simon Kelley]

On 08/05/12 15:49, starlight at binnacle.cx wrote:
> Running 'dnsmasq' 2.57 on a CentOS server here
> rather than on a router.
> 
> Whenever the WAN link goes down, usually for
> maintenance by the service provider, 'dnsmasq'
> stops responding to local /etc/hosts queries
> along with wide-area queries.  This has the
> effect of preventing numerous local activities
> from functioning, including 'telnet', 'ssh',
> and local 'sendmail' messaging.
> 
> Is there any way to configure 'dnsmasq' so
> that it will respond timely to such queries
> even when all remote DNS servers are not
> responding?
> 
>
My guess is that your clients have a "search" list configured in
/etc/hosts, so when you lookup "telnet" the first thing the resolver
does is generate a query for "telnet.mydomain.com", and that query is
being sent upstream and taking a long time to time out.

You can confirm this by using the --log-queries option to dnsmasq and
fix it either by changing your clients' resolver configuration, or
configuring dnsmasq to handle the FQDN queries. (See the --domain option
for at least part of the answer.)

HTH

Simon.