Dnsmasq can't forwarding .local DNS query

Question

I have a windows AD/DNS server. Domain is xxx.local. IP 192.168.3.100

At a same time I have a special subnet use dnsmasq service. these subnet computers can't get any xxx.local records from server 192.168.3.100. other domains is ok

dnsmasq config file as follow

Server=/google.com/8.8.8.8
Server=/facebook.com/8.8.8.8
Server=/xxx.local/192.168.3.100
Server=/1234.com/192.168.3.100

test result. I'm sure the third is not working. other is ok.

I found dnsmasq doesn't forward anything about *.local domain DNS query

Whw? How to fix it ? Thanks

Answer 1

This is by design, as per RFC6762, .local domains are meant to be resolved locally using multicast DNS (mDNS) or against local DNS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local

It's not that you can't make it work, but the nature of this domain makes DNS libraries and software handle it differently to other domain names.