0

I am in a real bad bind. We are currently moving to a hosted virtual private server for our website, and Google Apps Premier for email from an on-site MS Exchange 2003 server handling both functions.

The problem is that we have redirected the DNS for the domain to the new server, which has broke our exchange email. I had an AName in place for the URL that we use to access our mail (i.e. mail.ourdomain.com - points back to the exchange server IP) - however it's starting to look like that's not going to cut it.

How can I configure my email traffic to flow through our new server toward the old exchange server using DNS settings?

Update: So now I have:

    mail.DOMAIN.COM.    (A record)  10.10.10.10 (IP Address of Exchange server.) 
AND   DOMAIN.COM              (MX record)    mail.DOMAIN.com

I don't have a CNAME involved, but this should still route mail through the new server to our onsite Exchange server, correct? As of now, I can log into exchange with https://10.10.10.10/exchange and send mail, but incoming mail is still bouncing. I just want to be sure I'm not having an issue with ports or anything else...

2
  • Your question is essentially the same as this one: serverfault.com/questions/98625/… (and dozens of others on SF already) - except replace the MX details with your Exchange details Jan 10, 2010 at 20:49
  • I would say that question is similar but not the same. I wasn't sure if there were other considerations in transferring mail to MS Exchange 2003 - not Google Apps (yet)
    – cinqoTimo
    Jan 10, 2010 at 21:51

1 Answer 1

0

You use the MX records to "tell the internet" where to send your mail.

  1. have A record for mail.domain.com
  2. insert MX records pointing at mail.domain.com

In BIND syntax the scenario might look like:

mail  IN  A  1.2.3.4
       IN  MX  10  mail.domain.com.

Clarify your problem more if this doesn't fix it.

2
  • Thanks. I had the ANAME, but my MX record was wrong. It's still kicking back mail, but I assume that it updates like other DNS setting changes.
    – cinqoTimo
    Jan 10, 2010 at 21:05
  • FYI, it's just called an "A" record -- there's something called a CNAME that is also DNS, but not an "ANAME" - just so you don't confuse people. :) DNS has a serial number in it -- so, after fixing your MX then make sure the serial is incremented (typical BIND serial numbers are YYYYMMDDXX where XX is 01, 02, 03, etc.) and be sure to push the zone upwards (again, with BIND using the rndc tool, 'rdnc reload zone_file'). Due to your TTL already sent to the world it'll probably take 24hrs to get to a lot of places, 48hrs to be safe.
    – user15590
    Jan 11, 2010 at 3:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .