Azure DNS Zone, NS records not appearing for subdomains

Question

In my DNS Zone, we have a domain sportinglife-news.com.

I have created a subdomain record "email".

I have set a NS records but when i use a external DNS/NS query tool and the nameserver are not appearing, I am querying the Nameservers for email.sportinglife-news.com

Please can some one explain why?

Answer 1

Hi Mike,

There is no SOA record for email.sportinglife-news.com over on dotdigital. I believe you have not completed the process with them so they do not have your domain in their nameservers yet. Their DNS server is refusing queries for your domain.

Please see dig output below:

; <<>> DiG 9.18.30-0ubuntu0.24.04.2-Ubuntu <<>> -q=NS email.sportinglife-news.com. +trace +nodnssec -4
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 43620
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;=NS.                           IN      A

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Tue Apr 29 20:58:58 UTC 2025
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 32

.                       517450  IN      NS      m.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      l.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      a.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      b.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      e.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      g.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      c.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      h.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      d.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      f.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      j.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      k.root-servers.net.
.                       517450  IN      NS      i.root-servers.net.
;; Received 811 bytes from 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53) in 4 ms

com.                    172800  IN      NS      l.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      j.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      h.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      d.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      b.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      f.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      k.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      m.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      i.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      g.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      a.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      c.gtld-servers.net.
com.                    172800  IN      NS      e.gtld-servers.net.
;; Received 852 bytes from 198.41.0.4#53(a.root-servers.net) in 2 ms

sportinglife-news.com.  172800  IN      NS      ns1-05.azure-dns.com.
sportinglife-news.com.  172800  IN      NS      ns2-05.azure-dns.net.
sportinglife-news.com.  172800  IN      NS      ns3-05.azure-dns.org.
sportinglife-news.com.  172800  IN      NS      ns4-05.azure-dns.info.
;; Received 234 bytes from 192.43.172.30#53(i.gtld-servers.net) in 2 ms

email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN      NS      ns0.dns.dotdigital.com.
email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN      NS      ns1.dns.dotdigital.com.
email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN      NS      ns2.dns.dotdigital.com.
;; Received 125 bytes from 204.14.183.5#53(ns3-05.azure-dns.org) in 2 ms

;; Received 62 bytes from 162.159.9.162#53(ns0.dns.dotdigital.com) in 2 ms

If you look at last line in the output, you see the response from ns0.dns.dotdigital.com is empty instead of returning SOA record. Further, if you do nslookup (screenshot below), you see query is refused:

Please click Accept Answer and upvote if the above was helpful.

Thanks.

-TP

Answer 2

Hi Mike Bateman (Timeform)

Thanks for the response.

It appears that there is no SOA record for your subdomain, which is causing the nameservers to not appear. The SOA record defines the authoritative DNS server for the zone, and without it, queries may fail or return inconsistent results.

PS C:\Users> dig -q=NS email.sportinglife-news.com +trace

Received 591 bytes from 192.26.92.30#53(c.gtld-servers.net) in 193 ms

email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN NS ns0.dns.dotdigital.com.
email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN NS ns1.dns.dotdigital.com.
email.sportinglife-news.com. 60 IN NS ns2.dns.dotdigital.com.

;; Received 125 bytes from 13.107.236.5#53(ns1-05.azure-dns.com) in 0 ms
;; Received 62 bytes from 198.41.222.120#53(ns1.dns.dotdigital.com) in 15 ms

For this parent domain "sportinglife-news.com" does have a SOA record in which it shows the proper name servers as expected.

PS C:\Users> dig -q=NS sportinglife-news.com. +trace

;; Received 1181 bytes from 199.7.91.13#53(d.root-servers.net) in 0 ms
sportinglife-news.com. 172800 IN NS ns1-05.azure-dns.com.
sportinglife-news.com. 172800 IN NS ns2-05.azure-dns.net.
sportinglife-news.com. 172800 IN NS ns3-05.azure-dns.org.
sportinglife-news.com. 172800 IN NS ns4-05.azure-dns.info.

;; Received 585 bytes from 192.35.51.30#53(f.gtld-servers.net) in 147 ms

sportinglife-news.com. 300 IN SOA ns1-05.azure-dns.com. azuredns-hostmaster.microsoft.com. 1 3600 300 2419200 300

;; Received 133 bytes from 208.84.5.5#53(ns4-05.azure-dns.info) in 2 ms

Some DNS setups rely on SOA records for proper delegation. If these records are missing, certain records within the subdomain may become unreachable.

I suggest you create a subdomain child DNS zone within the Azure DNS zone to overcome these issues.

Please let me know if you have any further queries or issues. so that we can connect offline to resolve your issue.

If the above information was helpful. Please click "Accept" the answer as original posters help the community find answers faster by identifying the correct answer.