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How to configure mail and SPF in Plesk if DNS is hosted externally?

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Yaroslav Tarasov
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Plesk for Windows Plesk for Linux kb: how-to ABT: Group B

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux
  • Plesk for Windows

Question

How to configure host mail and SPF record in Plesk if DNS is hosted externally?

Answer

Create the following records on external DNS:

CONFIG_TEXT: Host Record Type Value
example.com. MX (10) mail.example.com.
mail.example.com. A <localServer.IP>
webmail.example.com. A <localServer.IP>

Note: Replace <localServer.IP> with the Plesk server IP address.

If an SPF record exists for a domain, the corresponding record should be created as well:

CONFIG_TEXT: Host Record Type Value
example.com. TXT v=spf1 +a +mx +a:<localServer.IP> -all

For mail autodiscovery to work it is also required to create SRV records manually on the external DNS:

CONFIG_TEXT: _imaps._tcp.example.com. SRV example.com.
_pop3s._tcp.example.com. SRV example.com.
_smtps._tcp.example.com. SRV example.com.

In case Cloudflare is used as an external DNS provider please contact Cloudflare support for assistance.

Comments

6 comments

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  • Avatar
    Ben Rafael

    Hi Dmitry Surovtsev,

    My apologies, we will need to change <localServer.IP> by real server IP, right?

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  • Avatar
    Maxim Krasikov (Edited )

    Hello @Ben Rafael,

    You are right, placeholder <localServer.IP> should be replaced by an actual server IP-Address.

    For example:

    CONFIG_TEXT: Host                 Record Type    Value
    example.com.                  MX    (10) mail.example.com.
    mail.example.com.              A    203.0.113.2

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  • Avatar
    Tryall (Edited )

    Hello ! I'm currently moving an old website from OVH into a new plesk installation I host myself.

    I want to keep the OVH webmail so my client doesn't have to change to a new one.

    The old OVH DNS rules are 

    website.com.     MX      mail.website.com. 

    mail.website.com.      CNAME    ns0.ovh.com.

     

    So in theory, from my new plesk DNS if I the same CNAME rules towards ns0.ovh.com. My emails should be sent back to the old webmail, right ?

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  • Avatar
    Anton Maslov

    Hi,

    If you will continue hosting mail on OVH and use Plesk only for website hosting, when above should work.

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    Oscar Segura

    Not quite sure how to configure the SRV records...

    But those examples do not specify the port, which is necessary algonside the priority and the weight. I guess the port depends on the server configuration?

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  • Avatar
    suzie rosen

    Hey @...,

    I believe IP addresses are not meant to be added to MX records,

    I get this error in in Cloudflare when adding my IP in the second record 

    DNS Validation Error (Code: 1004) Content for MX record must be a hostname.

    For more info see this: https://blog.hboeck.de/archives/904-Please-do-not-put-IP-addresses-into-DNS-MX-records.html 

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