cannot add domain mx record

[Frank]

Hi,

I have two MX records for my two mail servers, say, mail1.mydomain.com and
mail2.mydomain.com. I need to add an MX record for mydomain.com because
emails sent to mydomain.com would get rejected whereas emails to
mail1.mydomain.com are delivered. My problem is that when I try to add an a
record and leave the "host or domain" blank. I get an error message that the
record already existe. Why? I only have an (A) record not an MX record. How
can I add the domain MX record? Thanks.

Frank

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

I have two MX records for my two mail servers, say,
mail1.mydomain.com and mail2.mydomain.com. I need to add an MX record
for mydomain.com because emails sent to mydomain.com would get
rejected whereas emails to mail1.mydomain.com are delivered. My
problem is that when I try to add an a record and leave the "host or
domain" blank. I get an error message that the record already existe.
Why? I only have an (A) record not an MX record. How can I add the
domain MX record? Thanks.

This happens if you have a Cname (alias) record on the same node. You can
have multiple MX records and multiple A (host) records on a single node, but
if you have one Cname record on a node, you can't have either a MX or A
record on that same node.

 

[Frankster]

You might want to check the following rfc...

ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2821.txt

Accourding to the quote below, it appears that only FQDNs are permitted in
MX records.

"Only resolvable, fully-qualified, domain names (FQDNs) are permitted
when domain names are used in SMTP."

-Frank

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

You might want to check the following rfc...

ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2821.txt

Accourding to the quote below, it appears that only FQDNs are
permitted in MX records.

"Only resolvable, fully-qualified, domain names (FQDNs) are permitted
when domain names are used in SMTP."

With all due respect, who are you directing this reply to?
The OP's problem is not a problem with a FQDN, a FQDN only requires a
trailing "," so even com. is a FQDN. I suspect the problem is a Cname record
on the same node he is trying to create the MX record on. He should check
his zone for this record:
(same as parent folder) alias someFQDN

 

[Frankster]

With all due respect, who are you directing this reply to?

With all due respect, I was directing this post to the original poster, as I
posted it in direct reply to his post, not yours.

I got the impression he was wanting to make a mx record with only domain.com
and no host name portion, and I didn't know if that could be done. If it
can, fine. No problem.

Doesn't seem like pointing out where to find the rfc is a bad idea. I did
say that he "may" want to check the rfc and that it "appears" etc. I did not
profess to have a sure answer.

I read your post and learned something from it. Good. But I didn't think
that precluded something else from possibly being wrong.

-Frank

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

With all due respect, I was directing this post to the original
poster, as I posted it in direct reply to his post, not yours.

I got the impression he was wanting to make a mx record with only
domain.com and no host name portion, and I didn't know if that could
be done. If it can, fine. No problem.

Doesn't seem like pointing out where to find the rfc is a bad idea. I
did say that he "may" want to check the rfc and that it "appears"
etc. I did not profess to have a sure answer.

I read your post and learned something from it. Good. But I didn't
think that precluded something else from possibly being wrong.

-Frank

I can make multiple MX records under "domain.com" as long as they're not
aliases, as Kevin pointed out.

As for the RFC, sometimes they are so wordy it is difficult to find the
specific part that describes what one is looking for. After scanning thru
it, I did find the part that says no local CNAMEs are allowed for an MX
record.

The domain name, as described in this document and in [22], is the
entire, fully-qualified name (often referred to as an "FQDN"). A
domain name that is not in FQDN form is no more than a local alias.
Local aliases MUST NOT appear in any SMTP transaction.

As far as creating multiple MX records, that is allowed as well, but if
there is an alias already created, then DNS won't let you create another
one, whether it's a CNAME or not. So I think in this case we would need to
look at the DNS RFCs on creating records.

If the original poster was trying to create an MX entry and leaving the host
name blank, (which is how it's done), it should have worked, and can make
multiple MX records that way whether the priority # is the same or not. But
creating one if there's a cname already created, then it will error out
saying either it exists or the record type is incompatible.

--
Regards,
Ace

If this post is viewed at a non-Microsoft community website, and you were to
respond to it through that community's website, I may not see your reply.
Therefore, please direct all replies ONLY to the Microsoft public newsgroup
this thread originated in so all can benefit.

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft Windows MVP - Windows Server - Directory Services
Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations.
=================================

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

With all due respect, I was directing this post to the original
poster, as I posted it in direct reply to his post, not yours.

Sorry, I wasn't sure if this was the same Frank posting from a different
location.

There are MX records in some TLDs, one for instance is in ai. some would not
consider ai. as a FQDN but it is, so long as you add the trailing dot. In
fact the DNS client service won't resolve it the first time unless you add
the trailing dot because with out the trailing dot the client service will
not send the query to the DNS server.
Try this in your browser:
http://ai/
Then add the trailing dot
http://ai./

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

Thanks for the ideas. I looked at my DNS and didn't find an entry
equals the line described below. I have some aliases pointing to
hostnames. In order to see it aliases are the problem, I removed all
CNAME entries from DNS and tried again. The same thing happened. Here
is a snap of how my DNS looks now:

(same as parent folder) start of authority someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQDN2
(same as parent folder) Host (IP
address of someFQDN1)
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQDN2
hostname_of_someFQDN1 Host (IP address of
someFQDN1) hostname_of_someFQDN2 Host (IP
address of someFQDN2)

Say again what record you are adding?
Because there are two MX records for this domain name in this zone, now.

 

[Frank]

Thanks for the ideas. I looked at my DNS and didn't find an entry equals the
line described below. I have some aliases pointing to hostnames. In order to
see it aliases are the problem, I removed all CNAME entries from DNS and
tried again. The same thing happened. Here is a snap of how my DNS looks
now:

(same as parent folder) start of authority someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQDN2
(same as parent folder) Host (IP address of
someFQDN1)
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQDN1
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQDN2
hostname_of_someFQDN1 Host (IP address of someFQDN1)
hostname_of_someFQDN2 Host (IP address of someFQDN2)

Regards,

Frank

 

[Frank]

Thanks for the RFC. I read before RFC they are not that hard to understand.
I will go through this one as well.

Frank

 

[Frankster]

Thanks for the RFC. I read before RFC they are not that hard to
understand. I will go through this one as well.

Frank

You're welcome.

-Frank

 

[Frank]

Say again what record you are adding?
Because there are two MX records for this domain name in this zone, now.

I am sorry. I got two things confused. I forgot that lets say
"myserver.mydomain.com" is called a fully qualified host name (Ill call it
FQHN) and FQDN is say mydomain.com.
There are two servers FQHN1, FQHN2 under one domain FQDN. The "start of
authority" added admin.FQDN. So repeating the above DNS it would look like
this:

(same as parent folder) start of authority
[2005040638],someFQHN1,admin.FQDN
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQHN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQHN2
(same as parent folder) Host (IP address of
someFQHN1)
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQHN1
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQHN2
hostname_part_of_someFQDN1 Host (IP address of someFQHN1)
hostname_part_of_someFQDN2 Host (IP address of someFQHN2)

Frank

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

I am sorry. I got two things confused. I forgot that lets say
"myserver.mydomain.com" is called a fully qualified host name (Ill
call it FQHN) and FQDN is say mydomain.com.
There are two servers FQHN1, FQHN2 under one domain FQDN. The "start
of authority" added admin.FQDN. So repeating the above DNS it would
look like this:

(same as parent folder) start of authority
[2005040638],someFQHN1,admin.FQDN
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQHN1
(same as parent folder) DNS server someFQHN2
(same as parent folder) Host (IP
address of someFQHN1)
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQHN1
(same as parent folder) Mail Exchange someFQHN2
hostname_part_of_someFQDN1 Host (IP address of
someFQHN1) hostname_part_of_someFQDN2 Host (IP
address of someFQHN2)
Frank

Actually, the way you've described it, an FQDN and your "FQHN" are the same.
An FQDN can be any node in the tree, whether it's a domain name's
relationship in the DNS hierarchal tree, or a hostname's relationship in the
hierarchal tree.

Ace