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Internal / External DNS Entries & MX Record

Hello Experts,

So heres a quick summary of whats happening. I have inherited a huge DNS mess. We have external entries hosted through GoDaddy.com and two internal DNS servers. I also have just installed a second exchange server, and I am in the process of removing the first server. Before I remove any servers, I want to ensure that the e-mail continues to route correctly. I have followed all steps outlined in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822931.

Currently in the GoDaddy control panel, I have an @ record that points to the public url of my webserver (216.253.206.206). I have an MX record that lists mail.luceresearch.com with a priority of 10 that points to the host @. If I check this on www.mxtoolbox.com it resolves correctly to the IP address 216.253.206.206.

The new mail server is located at the public IP address 216.253.206.212. How would I configure this in GoDaddy's DNS control to point my MX record at my new server IP?

Next - Internal DNS....
Oy - its a bigger mess. I have the forward lookup zone lucer.luceresearch.local, luceresearch.com, and luceresearch.org. All names and private IP's are listed in the .local zone. In the luceresearch.com forward lookup, there are A records that point to the private IP (i.e. www points to 192.168.0.6) for DNS resolution within the intranet. In the luceresearch.org I have two A records: mail that points to private IP (192.168.0.6) and mail: that points to public IP (216.253.206.206). The MX record is listed in this zone as mail, MX, and points to mail.luceresearch.org.

I want to make sure that I can point the MX record to the new exchange server before I remove the first one from the site. I appreciate any advice.

ok, give me a mement alot to give here.

External DNS - change the mail. record to the new IP address of your exchange server. leave the MX record alone.

Internal DNS, get rid of the A records in the anything but the .local zone and replace with CName records point to the autoupdaed a records in your .local zone. The way it is configured now is a maintenance nightmare.

ok so not so much afterall, but here is what you want, you want to need to maintain at most 3 records for the same object, one of which should maintain itself through it registering its connection with the .local zone.

1 - External Record (If Needed, dont need an external record for your desktop)
2 - Internal Record .local (should be updaed everytime the device boots, except for possible printers or routers, you can add these manually if you need them)
3 - Internal version of External Domains (These should ONLY be either external IP addresses, or CName records to your .local zone.)

ASKER

The mail record on GoDaddy.com is a CNAME record of mail. which points to luceresearch.com. Is this where I should put the IP address of the exchange server?

ASKER

What about the internal MX record in the luceresearch.org forward lookup zone that is accompanied by 2 A records with the name mail that point to internal IP and external IP?

do you have email servers other than the one hosting those domains in the .local domain? or anything mail servers inside your network that use DNS to route mail to your exchange server?

ASKER

Attached is a screenshot of the GoDaddy DNS control panel page coupled with the Internal DNS entries of the forward lookup zone luceresearch.org that contain the MX record.
GoDaddy-DNS.bmp
Internal-DNS-entries.bmp

and the godaddy record, make sure you dont have anything pointing to the lucanresearch.com alone that should be a different address. otherwise yes.

you can make your internal MX records point staight to servername.lucanreasearch.local if you want, but what inside your network is going to need to lookup your MX record?

ASKER

Currently im afraid my mail is routing through the First exchange server in the network (216.253.206.206) and being relayed to the second server (216.253.206.212) which now houses all the mailboxes. I also use SMTP virtual servers in the IIS Snap-In for additional mail routing, which is an easy fix. I want to remove the First exchange server and only use the second server for email and email routing.

you will want to get Reverse DNS setup for you mail server too, or setup to go through someone like exchangedefender.com who will basicaally be a public identity for your mail and send all mail after scanning and filtering for viruses and spamm to your personal server, all my clients stay on exchange defender, i just build it into my service agreements, I highly recommend it.

services like exchange defender send and receive your mail for you so you dont have to worry about failover and reverse dns.

ASKER

I have reverse DNS set up through my ISP already :)

I'm confused however when you said :
Neranel:and the godaddy record, make sure you dont have anything pointing to the lucanresearch.com alone that should be a different address. otherwise yes.

According to my screenshot, what record would I need to modify to have my MX record pointing to my new mail server IP address 216.253.206.212?

if you have other internet services other than mail.lucannreasearch.com that need to point to the old or a different ip address as lucanresearch.com (without the mail), then delete the mail CName and make it an A record with the required IP address, if not, change the IP address of lucanreasearch.com

also fix the CNames smtp and email as they are infinate loops, you cannot point a CName to itself.

ASKER

I do, I still have my website hosted on that server.

So to confirm my understanding, I am going to edit the CNAME record on the GoDaddy site to have the CNAME of mail. and the Points To will be the IP address of my mail server: 216.253.206.212, correct?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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ASKER

I have made the changes as suggested. Can you visually audit the screenshot to ensure I have the settings correct?
New-DNS-Settings-on-GoDaddy.bmp

Looks good, though you prob want SMTP and POP, and email to point to mail.lucannresearch.com I assume those should all point to your exchange server.

ASKER

Absolutely amazing and extremely quick replies. Thanks for your help clearing up this nightmare.

May i reccomend a book by Mark Minasi called Mastering Windows Server 2003. this issue would not even have caused you stress if you had read that book first.

in fact, after reading that book youd be able to answer alot of ?s here.