This is probably basic, but can you clue me in on what the rndc key is for and how to check if it is working?
rndc is a tool for runtime control of the nameserver. /etc/rndc.key is the file containing a security key to ensure that only the right people can use it. The bind rpm post-install script should create this file for you, and your main named.conf file should include it like this:
include "/etc/rndc.key";
It is, however, nothing to do with slave servers.
The tool you need to diagnose this problem is "dig", which is part of the "bind-utils" package.
On your slave server, run "dig @master-server-ip example.com axfr"
This should output a list of the zone example.com. If it doesn't, the reason is that the master is not configured to allow transfers to the slave.
If you get a connection failure then you may have firewall problems.
If the transfer works, the problem lies with the slave server configuration.
That should narrow the problem down a bit.
Paul.
