domain name system - DNS Subdomain delegation issue

(Updated the post with more detailed example)

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I have my domain: example.com setup at DNS provider 1. Provider 1 has nameservers:

1. ns1.dns1.com


2. ns2.dns1.com

I want to delegate authority for subdomain.example.com to another DNS provider, provider 2, which has nameservers:

1. ns1.dns2.com


2. ns2.dns2.com

For this my zone at provider 1 looks like this:

example.com IN NS ns1.dns1.com
example.com IN NS ns2.dns1.com
example.com IN A 127.0.0.1
subdomain.example.com IN NS ns1.dns2.com

subdomain.example.com IN NS ns2.dns2.com

At provider 2 i setup the zone: subdomain.example.com as follows:

subdomain.example.com IN NS ns1.dns2.com
subdomain.example.com IN NS ns2.dns2.com
subdomain.example.com IN A 1.1.1.1
test.subdomain.example.com IN A 1.1.1.2

The test:

# i get a reply (OK here)
dig a subdomain.example.com     

# i don't get a reply for this (error)
dig a test.subdomain.example.com 

Is this normal ?

Update 2: For command dig a test.subdomain.example.com i get in the result the SOA record of domain example.com.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;test.subdomain.example.com.            IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.              86400   IN      SOA     ns1.dns1.com. hostmaster.example.com. 2011032805 28800 7200 604800 86400

Answer

I'd first make sure you're getting ns1/2.provider-dns.com back as an answer to this query:

dig subdomain.example.com ns

You might also want to check that the zone is loaded on the nameservers to which you've delegated. Check that you get a correct serial number back:

dig @ns1.provider-dns.com subdomain.example.com soa

If that isn't working, check with whomever is running ns1/2.provider-dns.com to make sure your zone is being loaded.