onslookup: diagnosing problems

The onslookup program lets you query other name servers with the same query packet another name server would use. This is helpful in diagnosing lookup problems in TCP/IP UNIX System Services.

To turn debugging on at level 1, enter the following commands from the z/OS shell:
onslookup
set debug
The onslookup program shows timeouts and displays response packets.
To turn the debug option off, enter the following command:
set nodebug

You can set the debugging option to level 2 by entering the set d2 command just as the set debug command was entered previously. The set d2 command provides program trace information and set debug shows parts of the formatted DNS response message.

The resolver shows the normal debugging information plus the query packets that were sent out. Turning on d2 also turns on debug. Turning off d2, however, turns off only d2; debug remains on. To turn off both d2 and debug, enter the command set nodebug.

If the lookup request was not successful, an error message is printed. Possible errors include:
Timed out
The server did not respond to a request after a certain amount of time (changed with set timeout=value) and a certain number of retries (changed with set retry=value).
No response from server
No name server is running on the server machine.
No records
The server does not have resource records of the current query type for the host, although the host name is valid. The query type is specified with the set querytype command.
Non-existent domain
The host or domain name does not exist.
Connection refused
The host or domain name refused the connection.
Network is unreachable
The connection to the name could not be made at the current time. This error commonly occurs with ls requests.
Server failure
The name server found an internal inconsistency in its database and could not return a valid answer.
Refused
The name server refused to service the request.
Format error
The name server found that the request packet was not in the correct format. It might indicate an error in nslookup.
Note: The onslookup messages are not documented in the z/OS® Communications Server library. Therefore, onslookup command messages do not give a message ID for debugging.

For help with onslookup commands from the command line, type onslookup -h.