What Does The Error Mean?

The error “Authentication failed!” means that your server could not connect to RunCloud’s servers to authenticate your account. This is usually caused by a problem with the DNS resolution for domains such as “manage.runcloud.io”.

DNS resolution is the process of translating a domain name into an IP address that your server can use to communicate with another server. For example, when you type “google.com” into your browser, your computer asks a DNS server for the IP address of Google’s server, and then connects to that address.

If the DNS resolution fails, your server cannot find the IP address of RunCloud’s server, and therefore cannot authenticate your account.

How to Check if the DNS Resolution is Working?

You can use the dig command to test the DNS resolution for any domain name. The dig command sends a DNS query to a DNS server – and displays the response.

To use the dig command, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your server via SSH.
  2. Type dig manage.runcloud.io or dig google.com and press Enter.
  3. Look at the output of the command.

A successful DNS resolution will look something like this:

Successful DNS resolution using dig command to manage.runcloud.io

The important parts of the output are:

  • The status field should be NOERROR, which means that the DNS query was successful.
  • The ANSWER SECTION should contain an A record, which is the IP address of the domain name.
  • The Query time should be low, which means that the DNS server responded quickly.

A failed DNS resolution will look something like this:

Failed DNS resolution using dig command to manage.runcloud.io

The important parts of the output are:

  • The status field will be SERVFAIL, which means that there was a problem with the DNS server’s response.
  • The ANSWER SECTION will be empty, which means that no IP address was found for the domain name.
  • The Query time will be either zero or very high, which means that the DNS server did not respond – or took too long to respond.

If your DNS requests to “manage.runcloud.io” are failing, then it is a good idea to check other popular websites such as Google or Amazon.

Failed DNS resolution using dig command to www.google.com

In the above example, the DNS requests to “www.google.com” are failing as well, which means that your computer is not able to resolve any domain names.

How to Fix the Error

If you see a failed DNS resolution for either “google.com” or “manage.runcloud.io”, it means that there is a problem with your DNS server or your network connection.

Some possible solutions are:

  • Restart your server and try again.
  • Check if your DNS server is configured correctly and working properly.
  • Check if your network connection is stable and not blocked by a firewall or a proxy.

If you are still not able to resolve the error then you can contact RunCloud support for further assistance, or start a discussion on RunCloud Community.