Hurricane Electric requires asymmetric transfer config:
- AXFR pull from 216.218.133.2 (slave.dns.he.net / ns4.he.net)
- NOTIFY destination 216.218.130.2 (ns1.he.net)
CoreDNS's transfer plugin uses a single bidirectional `to` list for
both, which is fine in principle but breaks in a confirmed bug: any
`to` with more than one specific IPv4 silently kills server-block
listener startup (no error, zones load, but :53 never binds).
Reproduced on 1.11.3 + 1.12.2 even with a minimal fresh `docker run`.
Workaround:
- Corefile keeps `transfer { to * }` (open AXFR; firewall does the
real source-IP filtering on TCP/53)
- scripts/notify-he.py crafts and sends NOTIFY messages directly to
216.218.130.2 (only). Pure-stdlib Python — no dependencies.
- Makefile `prep` target runs notify-he.py after prepare-zones.sh
so every zone-bump fires NOTIFY automatically.
Verified end-to-end: HE acks NOTIFY (rcode=0) for the 10 zones it
hosts as secondaries; remaining 81 return REFUSED (rcode=5) because
HE doesn't have them configured yet. Note: HE's free slave service
acks NOTIFY but only actually re-pulls AXFR on its hourly poll cycle
(observed behavior — they're poll-based by design). NOTIFY still
useful long-term in case HE changes that behavior; harmless either way.
27 records across 15 zones converted from direct A records pointing at
the Tailscale endpoint (100.79.95.190) to CNAMEs pointing at the
Tailscale-named alias. Now if the underlying Tailscale node's IP
changes, only the rpm-bullet record needs updating instead of
chasing 27 zones.
Affected zones (all *.l labels + a handful of dev / dev.mary names):
acrazy.org copper-springs.online demostar.io flonhoney.com
homestar.ink kg7q.cc malloys.us ourjob.site
qubeseptic.com ryanmalloy.com septic.report sidejob.pro
supported.systems warehack.ing zmesh.systems
No CNAME collisions: none of the converted names had other records
(MX/TXT/SRV/CAA/AAAA) at the same exact name. _acme-challenge.<sub>.l
records sit at distinct subdomains and continue to resolve independently
(verified: TXT lookups for known _acme-challenge.l.* names still return
the original values).
Also fixed prepare-zones.sh: added `|| true` after the serial-detection
grep so a zero-match (first run of a new day) doesn't trip `set -e`
and abort the whole prep.
Previously: `SERIAL=$(date +%Y%m%d)01` — same-day re-runs produced the
same serial. HE polled, saw no change, never pulled the update.
Now: scan zones-prepared/ for the highest `YYYYMMDDNN` matching today's
date and increment the NN counter. First run of the day starts at NN=01.
Caps at NN=99 with a clear error message (set SERIAL manually if you
genuinely need >99 changes per day).
`SERIAL=<value> make prep` still overrides the auto-detection, useful
for forcing a specific serial during recovery or for testing.
Verified end-to-end on dell01: prep bumped 2026051601 → 2026051602,
CoreDNS auto-reload picked it up within 30s, all queried zones serve
the new serial. HE will pull on its next refresh poll (SOA refresh
= 3600s, so worst case 1 hour).
Goal: serve the public DNS face via Hurricane Electric's free
secondary-DNS service (dns.he.net), with CoreDNS on dell01 acting as
the hidden primary. We edit zones here; HE pulls them via AXFR.
Changes:
- scripts/prepare-zones.sh:
* SOA mname: ns1.vultr.com -> ns1.he.net (so the apex SOA reflects
HE as the primary in published RDATA)
* Strip ns?.vultr.com NS records from each zone and inject the five
HE nameservers (ns1..ns5.he.net) as the authoritative NS set
- Corefile (shared `common` snippet):
* Add `transfer { to * }` to authorize AXFR. Tried specific IPs +
`*` mixed on the same line but CoreDNS silently fails to bind
server blocks with that syntax; bare `to *` is the only form that
actually starts the listeners. Trade-off: NOTIFY targeting is lost
(HE polls per SOA refresh=3600s instead of being pushed). For DNS
data this is fine since each record is publicly queryable anyway.
Verified AXFR end-to-end: `dig @dell01 -p 5353 acrazy.org AXFR +tcp`
returns 41 records with the new HE NS set and HE-rooted SOA.
Still needed (operator action):
- Firewall NAT for TCP/53 -> 172.16.1.15:5353 (so HE can connect in)
- Add each of the 91 zones at dns.he.net as Secondary DNS pointing
at 154.27.180.210
- Update each domain's registrar NS records from Vultr -> HE
- New Corefile snippet (common) shared across plain DNS / DoT / DoH so
zone-loading + forward + cache stay DRY across all three transports
- scripts/generate-certs.sh: openssl-only self-signed RSA cert with SANs
for localhost / 127.0.0.1 / ::1 / coredns / dns.local. Idempotent —
skips regeneration if cert is valid >24h ahead; FORCE=1 to rotate.
- Key chmod is 0644 so the CoreDNS container's nonroot user can read it
via the bind mount. Acceptable for local dev; production should mount
real certs with proper UID/GID.
- DOT_PORT=8853, DOH_PORT=8443 (avoids Caddy already-on-443 collision)
- Makefile: `make certs`, `make test-tls`
- All three transports verified end-to-end (dig +tls, dig +https,
curl with raw RFC 8484 wire format)
