Linux – cannot resolve DNS server’s own domain name

I have a DNS server (mega.dude – 123.123.123.123) running bind 9.4. When I:

dig mega.dude

I get no answer section.

I have

nameserver 123.123.123.123

in /etc/resolv.conf

Here is my zone file:

$TTL 1W
@                       IN SOA          mega.dude. names.mega.dude. (
                                        2009081502      ; serial
                                        3H              ; refresh
                                        15M             ; retry
                                        1W              ; expiry
                                        1D )            ; minimum

                        NS        ns1
                        NS        ns2
                        MX 10     mail.mega.dude.

                        A 123.123.123.123
@                       A 123.123.123.123
ns1                     A 123.123.123.123
ns2                     A 123.123.123.123
www                     CNAME @
mail                    A 123.123.123.123

It didn't used to look like this. I read that it's evil to have an mx record pointing to a CNAME. So I changed that. Then I thought maybe that was also the case for NS. So I changed those too. Still no good. The ports are open. I can't figure it out. Oh by the way, all the other zones return fine. But not the servers own domain. So I know I'm doing something stupid.

EDIT

Here is the section of my named.conf:

zone "mega.dude" {
     type master;
     file "pri/mega.dude";
};

zone "123.123.123.in-addr.arpa" {
        type master;
        notify no;
        file "pri/123.123.123";
};

Here is the response I get on the server itself:

$ dig mega.dude

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P1 <<>> mega.dude
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 25170
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mega.dude.                    IN      A

;; Query time: 134 msec
;; SERVER: 123.123.123.123#53(123.123.123.123)
;; WHEN: Thu Apr  1 08:02:54 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 28

And here is the response from my laptop:

dig @mega.dude mega.dude

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2.1 <<>> @mega.dude mega.dude
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 21361
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mega.dude.                    IN      A

;; Query time: 51 msec
;; SERVER: 123.123.123.123#53(123.123.123.123)
;; WHEN: Thu Apr  1 08:20:19 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 28

The queries.log has:

01-Apr-2010 08:02:54.192 client 123.123.123.123#33160: query: mega.dude IN A +

Anywhere else I should check?

EDIT

I've made the changes suggested by Alnitak – at least I think I understood:

$TTL 1W
@                       IN SOA          mega.dude. names.mega.dude. (
                                        2009081502      ; serial
                                        3H              ; refresh
                                        15M             ; retry
                                        1W              ; expiry
                                        1D )            ; minimum

                        IN NS        ns1
                        IN NS        ns2
                        IN MX 10     mail

                        A 123.123.123.123
ns1                     A 123.123.123.123
ns2                     A 123.123.123.123
www                     A 123.123.123.123
mail                    A 123.123.123.123

I now get an authority section, but no answer section:

dig mega.dude

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P1 <<>> mega.dude
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 30264
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mega.dude.                    IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
mega.dude.             86400   IN      SOA     mega.dude. names.mega.dude. 2009081502 10800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 123.123.123.123#53(123.123.123.123)
;; WHEN: Thu Apr  1 08:33:50 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 70

So it turns out the extra record was causing a problem.

This works:

@                       A 210.48.255.42

This does not:

                        A 210.48.255.42

I now get a full response:

$ dig @mega.dude mega.dude

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P1 <<>> @mega.dude mega.dude
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1029
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mega.dude.                    IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mega.dude.             604800  IN      A       123.123.123.123

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
mega.dude.             604800  IN      NS      ns1.mega.dude.
mega.dude.             604800  IN      NS      ns2.mega.dude.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.mega.dude.         604800  IN      A       123.123.123.123
ns2.mega.dude.         604800  IN      A       123.123.123.123

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 123.123.123.123#53(123.123.123.123)
;; WHEN: Thu Apr  1 15:15:58 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 112

That's great! Just a few oddities…

I run a test from http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheckdomainf.aspx

I see two problems:

1. Master DNS defined by SOA
   (mega.dude) was not found among NS
   records.

2. Domain mega.dude has no MX records,
   but it has A record for domain. This
   configuration is not mega.dude

and on: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/

I get:

No records found
Reported by ns1.mega.dude on Thursday, April 01, 2010 at 1:09:05 AM (GMT-5)

It's been over 12 hours since I made the changes. I would think that I did specify an MX record in my zone file. What about the SOA? I'm pretty happy that it's mostly sorted out, but it still looks like I've some problems. It's probably obvious that mega.dude not the actual domain name. I don't feel like getting hacked just yet.

Sorry to be so long with this question. I guess I should edit it down. Or should close this and post another question?

Thanks all!