Just as DNS servers publish IP addresses for hosts, they are also used to publish mail routing rules for hosts and domains. This is achieved through the use of Mail Exchange ("MX") resource records.
Each host or domain listed in the DNS database can have an MX record associated with it. Although they are not required for day-to-day operation, they make mail routing and delivery more reliable and resilient. Also, if you wish to have mail for your domain routed to a specific host, then MX records that provide these routing instructions are mandatory.
Since a wide variety of DNS servers run on an equally wide variety of platforms, it is impossible to describe how to add the records to the DNS server with any measure of accuracy. You should contact the system administrator, consultant, or service provider responsible for managing the DNS servers for your network and request that they add explicit MX records for this host to the DNS server, and to also add MX records for your domain to the DNS server as well. You will need to provide them with the IP address, hostname and domain name of this server.
The following sample MX resource record indicates that all mail addressed to the unoverica.com domain should be sent to "Prophet," and then to "Greywolf" if "Prophet" is unreachable:
UNOVERICA.COM IN MX 10 Prophet
IN MX 20 Greywolf
Before adding MX records for your domain to your DNS server, you should locate another mail server that can be configured to act as a secondary server for your domain. If you do not have a local system that is capable of providing this service, then your Internet Service Provider may offer secondary MX services as part of your connection agreement.
For more information about DNS, refer to section C.3 The Domain Name System. For more information on MX records, refer to section C.3.2.2 "MX" Records.
STEP: To continue to the next step in the configuration process, go to section 5.2.3 Adding the Domain to Unoverica Message Transport.
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