Unable to start DNS service: bad owner name (check-names)

Marc López

Updated June 11, 2021 09:15

Plesk Onyx for Linux kb: fixed kb: bug ABT: Group B

Applicable to:

DNS service cannot be started in Plesk with the following error:

PLESK_ERROR: Unable to manage service by dnsmng: ('start','dns'). Error:
In /var/named/chroot/var/example.com there is a A record in the zone containing an underscore, E.G: _dmarc.example.com.

The following error can be found in /var/log/messages while trying to start named-chroot service:

CONFIG_TEXT: named-checkconf: example.com:37: _dmarc.example.com: bad owner name (check-names)
named-checkconf: zone example.com/IN: loading from master file example.com failed: bad owner name (check-names)
named-checkconf: zone example.com/IN: not loaded due to errors.

Product issue:

#PPPM-11448 "Plesk no longer allows the creation of non-TXT DNS records containing the underscore (“_”) character. Having one or more such records in a DNS zone hosted in Plesk caused the bind DNS server fail to start."
Fixed in:
- Plesk Obsidian 18 February 2020

Please consider updating your server:

If update is not possible for some reason you may try the following

workaround

Connect to the server via SSH.
Backup /var/named/chroot/var/example.com file:

# cp /var/named/chroot/var/example.com{,.bck}
Open /var/named/chroot/var/example.com file with any text editor and comment out (with a ;) the line with the A record contain an underscore:

CONFIG_TEXT: ;_dmarc.example.com. IN A 203.0.113.2
Start named-chroot service:

# service named-chroot start