BIND named: rndc: ‘reload’ failed: CNAME and other data

Problem

You get the following error while loading (or reloading) a zone:

  rndc: 'reload' failed: CNAME and other data

Analysis

You have probably two entries of the same name in the zone file of that domain (usually in “$BIND_ROOT/var/named/named.yourdomain.com”), i.e.:

  mail   IN  CNAME some.domain.com.
  mail   IN  A  11.11.11.11

You can also check your zone file using the following command:

# named-checkzone yourdomain.com /var/named/named.yourdomain.com
dns_master_load: /var/named/named.yourdomain.com:29: mail.yourdomain.com: CNAME and other data
zone yourdomain.com/IN: loading master file /var/named/named.yourdomain.com: CNAME and other data

If you do not have access to zone files and you want just to see the whole zone, use the following command:

# dig axfr yourdomain.com @master-server > tmp

Then just examine the tmp file:

# named-checkzone yourdomain.com tmp

Solution

Remove one of your duplicate entries and reload your zone (or name server).

  # rndc reload youdomain.com