Definition of DNS status: NXDOMAIN, NOERROR and SERVFAIL

When querying DNS records, you may see NXDOMAIN or SERVFAIL instead of other information. These messages are DNS query statuses. Understanding them helps determine the actual state of the domain and records being queried. DNS queries have the following three statuses:

Status	Meaning
NOERROR	The domain exists according to the root name servers, and the authoritative name servers return a query result.
SERVFAIL	The domain exists according to the root name servers (they have information), but the authoritative name servers do not answer the query.
NXDOMAIN	The root name servers have no authoritative name server information for the queried domain. It may not exist or may be on hold. If you receive NXDOMAIN, it is best to check directly with whois.

Example DNS query with dig Example DNS queries returning SERVFAIL with dig and nslookup dig command nslookup command