nslookup Against Azure DNS Returns “No Response from Server”

When attempting to use nslookup to query DNS zones hosted in Azure, you may receive the error message No response from server. This reason for this is because the request defaults to Azure DNS over IPv6 while your local network only supports IPv4.

Let’s look at an example.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

> server ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Default Server:  ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Addresses:  2603:1061::5
          40.90.4.5

> ****.com
Server:  ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Addresses:  2603:1061::5
          40.90.4.5

*** ns1-05.azure-dns.com can't find ****.com: No response from server.

Notice that specifying the FQDN when changing the default server returns both, IPv6 and IPv4, addresses.

When querying a domain on that name server, we receive the No response from server error message.

Instead of using the FQDN for the default server, use the IPv4 address as shown below.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

> ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:  ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Addresses:  2603:1061::5
          40.90.4.5

> server 40.90.4.5
Default Server:  ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Address:  40.90.4.5

> ****.com
Server: ns1-05.azure-dns.com
Address:  40.90.4.5

Name:   ****.com
Address:  166.102.15.14

Notice how we query the DNS server first (e.g. ns1-05.azure-dns.com) to acquire the IPv4 address (e.g. 40.90.4.5). Then, again, instead of using the FQDN when changing default servers, we use the IPv4 address.  As you can see, it will still resolve the FQDN of the Azure DNS server.

Now, when we query our domain against the default server, 1) you see that only the IPv4 address is returned for the DNS server; and, 2) our domain and it’s IP address is successfully returned.