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AllrecipesDCO_1's avatar
AllrecipesDCO_1
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Sep 18, 2014

Required Types of DNS Records

I am using GTM ZoneRunner to maintain/configure DNS records, and I've got a somewhat confusing situation I'm trying to figure out.

 

I currently have a subdomain, "sub.domain.com", which is just a CNAME record pointing at a third-party developer, "thirdparty.dev.com". I want to allow a completely separate third-party email provider, "thirdparty.email.com" to send email using "sub.domain.com".

 

I have attempted to create a TXT record in the UI, configured as below, but when I clicked "Finished", nothing happened. No errors, and no record created.

 

  • View Name: external
  • Zone Name: domain.com
  • Name: sub.domain.com
  • TTL: 300
  • Type: TXT
  • Text: "v=spf1 a include:thirdparty.email.com -all"

Do I need to create an MX record for "sub.domain.com" before I can create the TXT record?

 

If so, how should the MX record be configured? Should the "Mail Server" section point at our own "sub.domain.com", or should it point at the third-party email provider's domain?

 

  • View Name: external
  • Zone Name: domain.com
  • Name: sub.domain.com
  • TTL: 300
  • Type: MX
  • Preference:
  • Mail Server:
BIG-IP DNS
management

2 Replies

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  • Cory_50405's avatar
    Cory_50405
    Icon for Noctilucent rankNoctilucent
    Sep 22, 2014

    You'll need to create the MX record for sub.domain.com to point to thirdparty.email.com as the mail server.

     

    The TXT/SPF record is for receiving email servers to verify via DNS that the email arriving at its mail server is authorized to be sent by the sending mail server.

     

    The two records don't depend on each other from a DNS perspective, so you can have one without the other. However in order for SPF to work correctly in your environment, as well as route mail appropriately, both records need to exist.

     

    • AllrecipesDCO_1's avatar
      AllrecipesDCO_1
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Sep 22, 2014
      Thanks Cory! I found some more information that indicates I won't be able to make either the MX or the TXT/SPF record, because you can't create a new record for something with a CNAME. I'm continuing to investigate, but I think I'll have to create an entirely new subdomain for the mail portion of what we want to do.