Trace the route to a host

You can trace the route from your computer to an Edge DNS nameserver with traceroute on macOS and Linux, or tracert on Windows. The trace lists each network hop the packets cross, so Azion support can see where traffic to the nameserver slows down or stops. To check which records a zone answers instead, refer to Query a zone with dig.

Prerequisites

A host to trace. For Edge DNS, trace one of Azion’s nameservers: ns1.aziondns.net, ns2.aziondns.com, or ns3.aziondns.org. The commands on this page use ns1.aziondns.net.
On Linux, the traceroute package. Refer to Install traceroute on Linux.

Install traceroute on Linux

macOS includes traceroute, and Windows uses tracert, so this step applies to Linux only. The install command depends on the distribution.

On Red Hat or CentOS, install the package with yum:

sudo yum install traceroute -y

On Ubuntu or Debian, update the package list, then install the package with apt-get:

Shell

01sudo apt-get update -y

02sudo apt-get install traceroute

The traceroute command is then available in the terminal.

Trace the route on Windows

Windows runs the trace from the command window with tracert.

To trace the route to the nameserver on Windows:

Open the command window

Press the Windows key and R.

Start the command prompt

Enter cmd and select OK.

Run tracert

At the command prompt, enter tracert ns1.aziondns.net and press Enter.

The result of the trace appears in the command window. To interpret it, refer to Read the output.

Trace the route on macOS or Linux

On macOS, open Terminal. On Linux, open a terminal. Then run traceroute with the host:

traceroute ns1.aziondns.net

The command prints a header line, then one line for each hop. To interpret it, refer to Read the output.

Read the output

This example runs traceroute on macOS with -m 6, which stops the trace after six hops, and -q 1, which sends one probe per hop. Each address of a hop on your network appears as <hop address>:

traceroute -m 6 -w 2 -q 1 ns1.aziondns.net

Text

01traceroute to ns1.aziondns.net (179.191.160.2), 6 hops max, 40 byte packets

02 1 <hop address> (<hop address>) 4.464 ms

03 2 <hop address> (<hop address>) 6.936 ms

04 3 <hop address> (<hop address>) 6.223 ms

05 4 <hop address> (<hop address>) 20.735 ms

06 5 *

07 6 <hop address> (<hop address>) 35.464 ms

Read the output line by line:

The header names the host, the address it resolved to, the hop limit, and the size of each probe packet.
Each hop line shows the hop number, the name and address of the hop, and the round-trip time in milliseconds. With -q 1, each line shows one time.
A * replaces a hop that does not answer. The trace continues to the next hop, so a later hop can still answer.

With -m 6, the trace stops at hop 6 whether or not it reaches the nameserver.

Copy the complete output, header included, into your request to Azion support. The header tells support which address your computer resolved for the nameserver. To open a request, refer to Support.

Next steps

Query a zone with digCheck which records a nameserver answers for your zone.Troubleshoot Edge DNSFind the fix for a zone that does not answer as expected.How Edge DNS worksSee how a query reaches Azion's nameservers.