kevinizelbanks
asked on
DNS MX records
I have an exchange 2003 2 node cluster that I want to take off line. I also have an exchnage 2003 back end server that is online and all of the mail boxes have been transfered to it. As it stands right now I am unable to take the exchange cluster offline because incoming mail (mail from outside of our domain) is not delivered to the back end server when I turn it (exchnage cluster) off. What I need to know is how do I manipulate DNS so that I can leave the currently advertised MX record (cluster node) in place and have mail forwarded to the back end server MX record and ultimately into the appropriate mailstore on the back end exchange server. I know there is a CNAME record involved in this and I have tried a couple of configurations to no avail. Any help will be much appreciated. Remember, I want to be able to turn off the currently advertised Exchange server and still have mail delivered to the unadvertised mail server.
i2q2
Simply Replace the MX record with the IP Address of the back end Server which should be a public IP address accessible from Internet. But considering best practices in deploying emails, It would be advisable to have an SMTP server which acts as a gateway to receive and deliver Emails without exposing your internal email servers.
ASKER
Let me elaborate more, sorry for the mixup. My servers are on a secure domain (private) and are not accessible by the public. My MX records are advertised by a an operations center located in the states. Without making any changes at the operations center I want to manipulate my local DNS to have mail coming in to the mail.mydomain MX record forward to the mail.mynewdomain MX record. After this is accomplished I wish to then turn off the server that receives on the mail.mydomain MX record and continue to have mail forward to the mail.mynewdomain MX record. I hope this clears things up, thank you.
Whatever device that is doing the translation between the public IP address's MX record to your internal private IP address can be altered to forward to your new mail server.
So if your public MX record is w.x.y.z and that is going to your firewall/router/NAT device, and is getting translated to say 192.168.1.100 (your existing cluster), then change that so it gets translated to say 192.168.1.200 (your new mail server).
We you just using mail.mydomain and mail.mynewdomain as textual examples, or are they actually different domain names that will be receiving the emails? If it is an actual name change, you will need to update the MX record with the new domain name.
So if your public MX record is w.x.y.z and that is going to your firewall/router/NAT device, and is getting translated to say 192.168.1.100 (your existing cluster), then change that so it gets translated to say 192.168.1.200 (your new mail server).
We you just using mail.mydomain and mail.mynewdomain as textual examples, or are they actually different domain names that will be receiving the emails? If it is an actual name change, you will need to update the MX record with the new domain name.
robrandon is absolutely right.
Changes are done to the device doing the external to internal translation ie a firewall/router
Changes are done to the device doing the external to internal translation ie a firewall/router
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