Dnsadmin failed to answer a request – Let’s fix it

Stuck with, Dnsadmin failed to answer a request? We can help you.

Here, at Bobcares, we assist several of our customers with such errors as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let us see how our Support Techs fix this for our customers.

Dnsadmin failed to answer a request

Most often, we receive this error while we use AutoSSL to acquire SSL certificates. The error message will look like the following:

get_zones_for_domains(): dnsadmin failed to answer a request that it
accepted. at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/DnsUtils/AskDnsAdmin.pm line 130.
Failed to begin “cpaneluser”’s DCV: Can’t use string (“0”) as an
ARRAY ref while “strict refs” in use at
/usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/SSL/Auto/Run/CAA.pm line 69.

To verify the DNS zones for the domains allocated to the account, we can use the cPanel’s AutoSSL feature.

Suppose, if a zone is corrupted, it can cause the response in cPanel DNSAdmin to fail.

If the DNS request fails, the DNSAdmin log “/usr/local/cpanel/logs/dnsadmin_log” will return similar errors:

[2021-10-08 20:56:07 -0400] info [dnsadmin] Accepted connection on fd=5
Can’t call method “rdata” on an undefined value at
/usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/NameServer/Utils.pm line 138.
…propagated at whostmgr/bin/dnsadmin.pl line 608.
Can’t call method “rdata” on an undefined value at
/usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/NameServer/Utils.pm line 138.
…propagated at whostmgr/bin/dnsadmin.pl line 608.

Moving ahead, let us see how our Support Techs fix this error.

Initially, we need to check the DNS zones on the account to determine if any zones return errors:

named-checkzone domain.com /var/named/domain.com.db

We perform this check for all domains on the account to determine the presence of any corrupt DNS zones.

Now, we need to address the errors in the zone files or backup the zone and then perform a reset.

• Reset a DNS zone file

To reset a DNS zone file, we can either go to the WHM interface DNS Zone Manager or use the WHM API 1 Functions – resetzone.

To make this change using the interface, our Support Techs perform the following steps:

1. First, we click Manage for the domain that we want to modify. It will open a new interface.
2. Here, above the zone record table, we click Actions.
3. Then, from the menu, we can select Reset DNS Zone. We will now see a confirmation window.
4. Finally, we click Continue to reset the domain’s DNS zone file, or click Cancel.

In case we want to reset a large number of zone files our Support Techs advise automating this process using the API tool.

In cPanel versions 94 or earlier, we can perform this task through the WHM interface Reset a DNS Zone instead.

However, make note that, resetting a zone can result in missing DNS records. So we prefer this only if we cannot repair the DNS zone errors.

[Need further assistance? We are here for you]

Conclusion

In short, we saw how our Support Techs fix the cPanel DNS error for our customers.