By default, Ubuntu desktop installation will provide DNS resolving configured, however in Ubuntu server installation avahi-daemon (or mdnsresponder) is needed to be installed to provide local LAN DNS resolution.
In my case, i found the error “Temporary failure in name resolution” when I tried to resolve a machine of my LAN from Ubuntu.
yvoictra@zoar:~$ ping erie.local
ping: erie.local: Temporary failure in name resolution
To solve this issue, there is no need to install a DNS server in the LAN. We can use the mDNS (Multicast Domain Name System) protocol. This protocol is used to resolve host names in a small network (LAN). The mDNS service can be contacted using UDP queries over port 5353. The mDNS protocol is published as RFC6762 and implemented by the Apple Bonjour and avahi-daemon services.
$ sudo apt install libnss-mdns
There is a specific search order order according to which it is performed. This order is set in the /etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file.
yvoictra@zoar:~$ cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.
passwd: files systemd
group: files systemd
shadow: files
gshadow: files
hosts: files dns
networks: files
protocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db files
netgroup: nis
In this file, what we are interested in the line of “hosts”. The column files means the use of the /etc/hosts file, and the dns means use of the Domain Name Service. If “files” are located before “dns”, this means that the system will first try to find the domain in /etc/hosts, and only then by DNS. This is default configuration.
Hostnames are stored in /etc/hostname, the system first looks there and if is is not found there, looks the file /etc/hosts.
After installing libnss-mdns, the line in /etc/nsswitch.conf should be like this:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
So, now, before using the DNS server, will try to resolv .local domains.
After this, now I can resolv my LAN machines:
yvoictra@zoar:~$ ping erie.local
PING erie.local (192.168.1.211) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.211 (192.168.1.211): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=4.66 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.211 (192.168.1.211): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.68 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.211 (192.168.1.211): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2.31 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.211 (192.168.1.211): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2.56 ms
^C
--- erie.local ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3005ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 2.307/3.051/4.659/0.937 ms
yvoictra@zoar:~$
And that’s all.