Relaying mail to clients Exchange server ??

[Hostbox.be]

Hi, I have a client who has his own exchange mail server.
So, he will not use POP3, but SMTP.

What do I have to do in order to get this working ?

He is asking about my relay server ?

And he wants to force his messages in my queue to his exchange server... can this be done and how ? Is there a specific command for this ?

Thanks for your help

Steven

[ciphervendor]

Remove the clients domain from /etc/localdomains; edit the mx line in his zone files to point to the exchange server IP.

[Hostbox.be]

Thanks, that's all I have to do ?

And what information does my client need in order to set up his Exchange server ? He told me he need my relay server address?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am a liitle bit new on mail issues.

Thanks again !

[Networkologist]

I'll be moving a similar client over next week, so I'll be watching this thread.

What I had to do in ensim was for the MX entry add :

MailDomain _____.domain.com //______ = empty
MailServer = their IP address i.e. 123.456.78.9

mail.domain.com had to be an A Record. Kinda like a subdomain(?)


I'm curious why you say

Remove the clients domain from /etc/localdomains;

[shannon]

One note or two, changing the MX record does not actually 'relay' the mail from your server to the clients, it just tells everyone else on the net that mail should go direct to the clients exchange box. This works fine provided the client's box is online 24/7 and knows that you are not actually acting as a relay/backup MX for their domain.

We're actually looking into figuring out how to have our servers run as a secondary MX and also allow the same client to relay their SMTP mail through us. (Client has own MX server, but it's on a cable modem and they are experiencing problems sending to AOL users now that the entire Comcast IP range is blocked from sending to AOL users... fun fun).

So we need to have it setup something like this:

a> Client relays all their outbound email through our box, basically using us as their SMTP smarthost. (*/etc/alwaysrelay looks to be valuable for this part, but there's a possibiltiy their IP could change, so I'm digging a bit now*)...

b> Client's box is setup as main MX for their domain (we've done this one before for people, no problem)

c) Our server is listed as a backup MX for their domain, and our server knows to accept email for them and forward to their box (when it's up) accordingly. (*This is the part we're looking at hard now*... done it with Sendmail before, but never Exim, and never with a cPanel box)

Once I find some detailed results, maybe I'll throw together a little "cPanel Lovin For Custom Email Solutions" how-to or something.

[ciphervendor]

Originally posted by Hostbox.be
Thanks, that's all I have to do ?

And what information does my client need in order to set up his Exchange server ? He told me he need my relay server address?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am a liitle bit new on mail issues.

Thanks again !

Let me kind of break it down into steps for you:


1. Create a new A entry within your clients zone file:

exchange 114400 IN A IP.Address

IP.Address is that of the exchange server.


2. You will want to change the MX line in the same file....

Should look like this:

domain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 domain.com.

Change to:

domain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 exchange.domain.com.

* Notice the '.' after the domain names; those are intentional and required.


3. Save, close & reload bind.


4. You will need to remove your clients domain from /etc/localdomains so that any mail sent from the server your client is hosted on is not kept locally--rather forwarded to the exchange server.

Once DNS propagation is complete, your client will have mail hitting their exchange server. Concerning their request for information, they don't need anything from you to make this happen.

[Networkologist]

Thanks ciphervendor.

So there is no need for a reverse PTR?

[Stefaans]

Originally posted by ciphervendor
Remove the clients domain from /etc/localdomains; edit the mx line in his zone files to point to the exchange server IP.

Should the domain also be entered in /etc/remotedomains or what is that used for?

[Networkologist]

Did you ever get your clients DNS/MX records setup so that mail sent to someone@theirdomain.com gets routed to their Exchange server?
If so, could you say how?

I'm going to be moving an account this weekend thats using Exchange.

As a quick aside to anyone who is reading this, is it possible to use a domain I own but that I'm not using and configure that as a test to see if mail would work for this Exchange client?

[Express]

What if the client only has a ip and he wants his mail forwarded to there?

[isputra]

Thanks ciphervendor,

Your HOWTO works like a charm

Originally posted by ciphervendor
Let me kind of break it down into steps for you:


1. Create a new A entry within your clients zone file:

exchange 114400 IN A IP.Address

IP.Address is that of the exchange server.


2. You will want to change the MX line in the same file....

Should look like this:

domain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 domain.com.

Change to:

domain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 exchange.domain.com.

* Notice the '.' after the domain names; those are intentional and required.


3. Save, close & reload bind.


4. You will need to remove your clients domain from /etc/localdomains so that any mail sent from the server your client is hosted on is not kept locally--rather forwarded to the exchange server.

Once DNS propagation is complete, your client will have mail hitting their exchange server. Concerning their request for information, they don't need anything from you to make this happen.

My only problem is when cpanel update the security , the domain that already remove from /etc/localdomains appear again and the exchange won't work anymore untill i remove my client domain from /etc/localdomains again.

It's killing me if i have to remove the domain everyday

Do you have another good suggestion about it ?

Thanks again for your help

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[Stefaans]

I have a hunch that each domain you remove from /etc/localdomains, you should add to /etc/remotedomains. It seems like a way to flag domains to be not automatically included in /etc/localdomains again.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[isputra]

Thanks,

I will try it and report the result tommorow if it doesn't work.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[Stefaans]

We had a certain domain listed in /etc/remotedomains that kept on getting added to /etc/localdomains with each /scripts/mailperm. I then took a closer look and found the line in /etc/remotedomains had a space after the domain name. Removing the space fixed the problem

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[goodmove]

Originally posted by Stefaans
We had a certain domain listed in /etc/remotedomains that kept on getting added to /etc/localdomains with each /scripts/mailperm. I then took a closer look and found the line in /etc/remotedomains had a space after the domain name. Removing the space fixed the problem

What are the permissions for /etc/remotedomains ? 660 ?