URGENT: Server is down... 2nd Name Server reported lame. How do I find cause and fix?

[Greg Platt - Platt Consultants]

After 3 months of my dedicated running without problems under mara, I 

suddenly have a problem where all my domains have gone dead. They all

show the same Apache, cpanel, WHM setup screen that begins with:

 

Great Success! Apache is working on your cPanelR and WHMT Server.

 

I don't HAVE either cpanel or WHM on my Debian Etch 4.0r3 server and 

never have. That suggests this message isn't coming from my server at 

all.

 

My research shows this is occurring because our second DNS server 

(ns2.myhost.com) - the one associated with the second IP address for 

our server is being detected as "lame" and for some reason that name 

server is presently receiving ALL our domain requests. 

 

Not sure why that's happening. But if I reboot the server and try to 

access any of its domains while it's still rebooting I can see in my 

browser's that all domain requests are being directed to the second IP 

address and not the first one. (as configured, Mara uses both). When 

I check any of my domains with intodns I find the second IP address 

is being reported as lame. I assume that means all our requests are 

being redirected to the upstream server's default apache page. That 

would explain why I'm seeing the cpanel and WHM message when I know 

those programs don't exist on our server.

 

I have 2 name servers. The server has 2 IP addresses. In mararc, each 

name server is associated with a different server IP address. I know 

that's not ideal but it was the best I could manage when setting up 

the server. Our server host does not provide DNS hosting. But they 

DO provide upstream DNS server support. 

 

1. why would my requests suddenly all be directed to the 

second IP ONLY?

 

2. Any suggestions for how to figure out why intodns is reporting our 

second IP as lame? AFAIK, it's setup the same way as the first one.