Domain – Naked domain map + Gmail MX Records

domaindomain-name-system

I want to map a naked domain (i.e., example.com instead of www.example.com) to my EC2 server. I also have gmail setup on my example.com domain.

A few weeks ago I attempted to map this together using CNAME to map to my EC2 URL. My email stopped working and it took some time to get back online; thus, I want to be extra careful to ensure I don't have an error if I try this again.

I have a static IP mapping to my EC2 server now. Thus, it is my understanding that the following host records will work:

-A record to @ host name (example.com) which points to my static IP address on AWS.
-Maintain my gmail MX record settings.

Can anyone confirm that this is the right way to set my domain settings and that email will continue to be correctly routed?

Thanks!

Best Answer

The rule about CNAME records is that they don't mean what you think they mean. They mean that the specified name is an alias of the target name for all record types, not just A records. So by CNAMEing example.com to ec2.example.net, you are saying that the MX record of example.com is the same as the MX record of ec2.example.net, which is not what you want. Because of this, names with a CNAME record cannot have any other record types assigned to it. Since the root of a delegated zone must have an SOA record, you cannot have a CNAME record at the root of a zone. Therefore you can CNAME www.example.com to your EC2 server, but you must use an A record for example.com.

Related Solutions

Domain – website not showing with www prefix. IIS7

Sounds like your DNS is the problem. You describe having an A record for both www.example.... and also example.com as well as a CNAME, but you shouldn't need all of them. You should either have an A record for both names in which case a user hitting either name would be directed to the site by IP, or an A record for one and a CNAME for the other. If what you really want is to have all users hit www..... whether they type it or not, just setup the two A records (or A record/CNAME pair) and at the web server level create a redirect to so that any connections to example.com are redirected to www.example.com. The easiest way to do this is with a second website within IIS, but it can be done within the same site as well.

Configure DNS Records for Separate Web Host and Email Server

[Frankly, you have so much pretend data here that this is probably going to be unnecessarily confusing. I'll try to keep everything straight.]

If I understand your question correctly, you currently have the following DNS records:

example.com.      A   1.2.3.4
example.com.      MX  10 example.com.
www.example.com.  A   4.5.6.7

...and a bunch of unspecified CNAME records. Also, there exists:

some.other.host.  A   2.3.4.5

...hosting your new website.

You want example.com (and presumably www.example.com) to point to your new site without disrupting email.

Try this:

Register mx.example.com as a new A record pointing to 1.2.3.4. Update the MX record for example.com to point to mx.example.com. At this point, you'll have:
```
example.com.      A   1.2.3.4
mx.example.com    A   1.2.3.4
example.com.      MX  10 mx.example.com.
www.example.com.  A   4.5.6.7
```
Now wait at least twice the TTL for your records to make sure the old MX record has time to expire from DNS caches.

Next, update the A record for example.com and www.example.com to point to your new site. You'll end up with something along the lines of:

example.com.      A   2.3.4.5
example.com.      MX  10 mx.example.com.
mx.example.com.   A   1.2.3.4
www.example.com.  A   2.3.4.5

At this point, I think you have what you want. Email continues to be handled by your existing mail server, but your web presence has been moved onto your new host.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Domain – website not showing with www prefix. IIS7

Configure DNS Records for Separate Web Host and Email Server

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