MX Record Question

[tbtucholka]

When edititing MX records is it ok to use an IP address for MX record, or MUST it be a hostname?

I have a client who wants to host their site on my cpanel server, but host their mail with another provider.

 

[randomuser]

When edititing MX records is it ok to use an IP address for MX record, or MUST it be a hostname?

Nope, sure isn't. It's "illegal" per the RFC. Don't even bother to try it, because it simply won't work.

I have a client who wants to host their site on my cpanel server, but host their mail with another provider.

If the client is using cPanel, you can use WHM to edit their MX record for their zone (Edit a DNS Zone feature). After you've edited the zone, make sure you remove the domain from /etc/localdomains and place it into /etc/remotedomains

When editing the zone, don't forget to increment the serial, and don't forget your periods. It's a pretty simple task overall, not much to it. If you need more info, just let us know.

 

[tbtucholka]

I edited the MX record to point to the IP of the other provider, however any mail sent from users on MY server to that domain the email never gets to the domain...

In WHM if I run the mail troubleshooter to one of the valid addresses, it has a mail route failure...

 

[randomuser]

I guess my reply was a little ambiguous. You can't set the MX record as an IP address. Make it a hostname.

 

[tbtucholka]

whups my bad..

I created an A record for mail.thedomain.com and pointed it to the new mail server

then edited the MX record, and put in mail.thedomain.com

then removed thedomain.com from /etc/localdomains and added mail.thedomain.com to /etc/remotedomains

restarted exim and all seems to be working ok now...


Thanks for your help!