License update failure: DNS query failure (auth.cpanel.net/A): Cpanel::Exception::Timeout/DNS query (auth.cpanel.net/A) timeout!

Symptoms

The cPanel license fails to update, and a warning similar to the following may be found in the license_log log file or the output of cpkeyclt.

warn [cpkeyclt] DNS query failure (auth.cpanel.net/A): Cpanel::Exception::DNS::ErrorResponse/(XID 3p42tn) DNS returned “SERVFAIL” (code 2) in response to the system’s query for “auth.cpanel.net”’s “A” records.

Description

The issue occurs when the server is unable to query the auth*.cpanel.net A records. This commonly occurs due to a firewall blocking DNS queries.

Workaround

Ensure that your server can query the auth*.cpanel.net DNS records.

[root@server ~]cPs# dig A auth.cpanel.net +short
208.74.121.85
208.74.121.86
208.74.121.83
208.74.123.2
208.74.123.3
208.74.121.82

Additional resources

How to troubleshoot network issues

What nameservers should I use in my resolv.conf file?

Could not resolve host