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I have recently bought a domain for setting up a website.

The website is hosted on OpenShift. Since OpenShift doesn't use its own nameservers, I've edited the DNS records on the domain registrar's website such that the CNAME entries point to the OpenShift URL (https://appname-domain.rhcloud.com).

The domain registrar provides only two email addresses as of now, so I tried hosting it on Pawnmail, for which I need to update my MX records.

While updating the DNS entry, I'd have to point the MX for mysite.com to Pawnmail's record. However, this is not allowed to happen since there is already a CNAME for mysite.com. Any workarounds? I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I'm very new to web-management, so excuse me if I'm missing out on anything. Is there any other way I can achieve what I'm trying to do?

Any help would be much appreciated!

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    I'm not sure I see where the conflict between MX and CNAME is coming from. MX is where you list which server(s) will handle mail for the domain. CNAME is a way to create an alias for another name, so that both names point to the same IP.
    – Eric Renouf
    May 28, 2015 at 12:02
  • @EricRenouf The conflict specifically comes from how CNAME makes one name an alias of another name, it's not specific to address records (A/AAAA) or any record type at all. That's why you are not allowed to have a CNAME record side by side with other records. (Also see the answer by @GAURAVKANSAL)
    – Håkan Lindqvist
    May 29, 2015 at 5:29

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CNAME can't exist with any other RR. So what you can do is, make a CNAME record of www.your-website.com like :- www.your-website.com CNAME desired-site.com

And then add a MX record for your-site.com like :- your-site.com MX mailserver.com

Now, you will face an issue while someone try to open http://your-site.com/ because you don't have an entry for that.

Just do A record entry for the above issue.

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  • Downvoted, doesn't answer the question.
    – Craig Watson
    May 28, 2015 at 12:25
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    @CraigWatson Could you elaborate on what you think is missing? While not elaborating on specific ways of how the address records should be set up, this is a somewhat basic but accurate answer which IMO doesn't deserve downvotes. Possibilities if there's no static address: have the zone apex address record(s) point elsewhere and do http redirects there (example.com) to www.example.com (you should have no problem with having your CNAME for www), or use a dns service which can synthesize A/AAAA records on the fly based on a provided name (eg alias feature in Route53)?
    – Håkan Lindqvist
    May 29, 2015 at 5:47
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Your Website is hosted at OpenShift and using DNS services of Registrar. You've pointed CNAME records to openshift. Your CNAME records would be like:

source FQDN ............CNAME ..............Destination FQDN (openshift URLs)

Now, you are using Email services of Pawnmail. Your MX records would be like:

MX......................FQDN resolving Pawnmail mail server

Here, you should not face any problem while adding CNAME and MX records for your domain. CNAME and MX are different records at at different service provider.

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  • CNAME records are not allowed to coexist with other records. A name cannot both be defined to be an alias and also have data of its own.
    – Håkan Lindqvist
    May 29, 2015 at 5:34

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