How to Host Email Only on Server?

vatra

• October 28, 2023 04:49

• domain.com is registered and parked at the domain registrar (R).
• I have a VPS server (S) with a cPanel account.

What are the steps to host email on S but leave the domain parked on R?

• I know I need to add S's MX, SPF, and DKIM records to R.

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  vatra

  • October 28, 2023 10:07

  I just realized I can't create an email account with the domain I wanted because cPanel is not offering it in the create email interface. I need to add it as an addon or parked domain first which is what I want to avoid. Is there any other way?

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • October 30, 2023 15:15

  Hey hey!

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  vatra

  • October 30, 2023 15:28

  Thank you. To clarify about parked domains:

  • You can only park a domain on the main and not on the addon domain.
  • When you park a domain you're effectively hosting its DNS on your server (cPanel creates a zone for it).
  • SSL management is also performed on your server.

  I want to avoid this situation because, at my domain registrar, I have all the options I need for a parked domain already, SSL, redirection...

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  vatra

  • October 30, 2023 15:49

  But if you can't have MX without mail.domain.com A record, how come I can host my email at Google Workspace just by adding their MX records without adding their A records for the mail.domain.com?

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  quietFinn

  • October 30, 2023 16:18

  I think cPRex's reply was not very clear... usually MX record is like: domain.com. 14400 MX 0 domain.com. However if domain.com points to another server, you must have some other hostname pointing to your server, and that's why you need that mail.domain.com (or whatever.domain.com if you prefer). MX record can't be an IP address.

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • October 30, 2023 17:01

  ^That. You have to get the domain on the cPanel machine somehow, whether it's a park or addon. You may never us it for anything other than email, and that's fine too, but it has to get created.

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  vatra

  • October 31, 2023 19:21

  Theorizing about this always confuses me. Is this the procedure:

  • I should park the domain on my server.
  • This will effectively create a DNS zone (host DNS) on my server.
  • I should change NS and MX records at the domain registrar.
  • I can then create mailboxes.

  Questions:

  • When you park a domain what is the difference from an addon domain? It probably doesn't have a folder/files of its own since it shares the root with the main domain.
  • Can you park a domain on top of an addon domain like you can on top of the main domain?
  • Is the parked domain redirected to its parent domain and what type of redirect is it, 301, 302, etc?

  How is it then possible that I have domains registered and parked at the domain registrar but my mail is hosted on Google Workspace just by adding the MX records? Is it possible to keep the domain parked and its DNS hosted on the registrar but still host email on my server - avoid changing NS records from step 3?

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  quietFinn

  • October 31, 2023 19:52

  You are complicating things. When you park a domain in cPanel it will create dns records for it. But those records are used only if the nameservers of that parked domain are pointing to the cPanel server. You can have dns hosted in the registrar, but those records are used only if you use registrars nameserver. You my have dns records for a domain in several places, but the nameservers of the domain tell what dns records the domain is actually using.

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  vatra

  • October 31, 2023 20:22

  So let's say DNS is hosted at the registrar and I park the domain at cPanel. Can I use cPanel's MX on the registrar to host email on cPanel?

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • October 31, 2023 20:34

  Sure, there's no reason that wouldn't work.

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  vatra

  • October 31, 2023 20:35

  OK, thank you! That was what the OP was all about.

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  vatra

  • October 31, 2023 21:24

  Can you please take a look at these questions:

  • Can you park a domain on top of an addon or subdomain like you can on top of the main domain?
    • I presume in cPanel it's only possible to park it on top of the main domain?
    • In WHM you can park it on top of main, addon, and subdomain?
  • Is parking actually creating a redirection and what type of redirect is it, 301, 302, etc?

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  vatra

  • October 31, 2023 23:59

  When I tried to park a domain on top of one of my existing addon domains I got this message: [QUOTE]There was a problem parking (aliasing) the domain "parked.com" on top of the domain "addon.com": (XID 2q95p8) This domain points to an IP address that does not use the DNS servers associated with this server. Transfer the domain to this server"s nameservers at the domain"s registrar or update your system to recognize the current DNS servers. To do this, use WHM"s Configure Remote Service IPs interface.
  

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  vatra

  • November 01, 2023 00:43

  OK, so I've added the registrars nameserver IP to the "Configure Remote Service IPs" and I was able to park the domain. I'll update you as I progress.

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • November 01, 2023 03:02

  Since you found the answer to #1, let's do #2 :D A park is just an entry on the ServerAlias line in the Apache configuration that tells Apache, "hey, load the same content for parkedomain.com as you do for otherdomain.com, okay?" And that's pretty much it.

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  vatra

  • November 01, 2023 09:08

  This
  SPF and DKIM are from the email server. Notes about the SPF records content:

  • When I parked the domain on the email server, the SPF record that was created by default only included the shared server IP 456.456.456.456
    , but the account where I parked the domain is on a dedicated IP 123.123.123.123
    and since I configured in Exim to send all mail with account's dedicated IP, the SPF check would not pass, is that right?
  • But "Email Deliverability" interface in cPanel correctly suggests that I replace the shared with the dedicated IP in the SPF. I added both as you can see, just in case, since that is the default behavior for all other domains in cPanel.

  Questions:

  • [COLOR=rgb(41, 105, 176)]Please check if my DNS records are OK.
  • [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]Please check if my SPF conclusions are OK.
  • I have multiple domains to host email for in this way but I would like to choose for each one what email to use for sending, shared 456.456.456.456
    , or dedicated 123.123.123.123
    . Since I have enabled the Exim option "Send mail from the account"s IP address", [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]will it be possible to instruct some domains to use shared IP for sending even though they are parked on my dedicated IP account?
    • Answer is NO, because for email to be sent with the shared IP the domain needs to be parked on the account that is using the shared IP.
    • Answer is YES, because you can set the domain.com. A record to use the shared IP. [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]So which one is it?

  [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]EDIT: [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Regarding question #3, I tested it and the answer is [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]NO[COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)], since the Exim setting instructs the server which IP to use for email. Changing the A record does nothing. So, if the Exim setting is ON, there is no way that you can set only certain domains from a dedicated cPanel account to use the shared server IP for sending mail. It's either all domain on an account use shared or all use dedicated IP for sending mail.

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  quietFinn

  • November 01, 2023 09:20

  [COLOR=rgb(41, 105, 176)]Please check if my DNS records are OK.

  
  For me it looks like you are trying to host dns records for domain.com in 2 places. :rolleyes: That will not work.

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  vatra

  • November 01, 2023 09:50

  I want to point out one more important thing directly related to my example of adding a parked or addon domain for the purpose of only hosting email. By default, you are NOT allowed to add a parked/addon domain that resolves to other servers, that is, DNS is hosted elsewhere. To do this currently, there are two options:

  • WHM > Tweak Settings > Domains > Allow Remote Domains
  • WHM > IP Functions > Configure Remote Service IPs > Remote Name Server IPs (IP addresses of remote nameservers that your system uses).

  As discussed for it. Hosting an email only for a domain that is hosted elsewhere is impossible without one of these options and both of them are very bad workarounds for such a normal feature - hosting email only. I'm actually stunned by this.

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  vatra

  • November 01, 2023 10:10

  Here are the corrected DNS records:

  • web/DNS mail.domain.com. A 123.123.123.123 domain.com. MX mail.domain.com. domain.com. TXT "v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:456.456.456.456 +ip4:123.123.123.123 ~all" default._domainkey TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=...;" SPF and DKIM are from the email server.

  @cPRex, can you please sift through this and my previous 2 posts? And thank you for staying with me through the process.

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • November 01, 2023 14:39

  I'm not completely sure what you're looking for at this point? You are correct that the remote option would likely need to be enabled in most cases in order to create the domain, but pointing a domain to a different mailserver is as easy as editing the MX record (and likely ensuring there is a corresponding A record to go with it, if necessary) What specifically are you trying to achieve at this point?

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  vatra

  • November 02, 2023 18:41

  OK, here is the deal. I will lay out my unorthodox setup and will probably update it with answers later when I get the results. Whoever wants to follow is welcome.

  • My domain (site.com) is parked (DNS hosted) at the registrar and I want to stay that way because I like the options they have.
  • I don't want a site on this domain, I just want to host mail (on my server).
  • I've parked the domain on my server on top of one of my addon domains (boss.com).
  • I've created a wildcard redirect (301) from the site.com to boss.com at the registrar.
  • I've created a mailbox (mail@site.com).
  • My server has shared IP 1.2.3.4 and hostname host.king.com.
  • The cPanel account with boss.com and site.com are on dedicated IP 5.6.7.8 and I've set up the Exim to send mail from dedicated IPs.

  My question is what DNS records should I add to the registrar in order for email to work? Scenario 1 (hosting mail on my domain site.com (dedicated IP) - UPDATE COMING...):

  • A (mail.site.com - 5.6.7.8)
  • MX (site.com - mail.site.com)
  • TXT (v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:5.6.7.8 ~all) - a record from my server for site.com
  • TXT (v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=...) - a record from my server for site.com

  NOTE: A record is required because mail.site.com from the MX record needs to be resolved to an IP address in order for hosting to work. Since the DNS is hosted at the registrar this is the only place I can do it. Even though I needed to park the site.com on my server to create mailboxes, DNS is not hosted there. Scenario 2 (hosting mail on my hostname (shared IP) - UPDATE COMING...):

  • MX (site.com - host.king.com)
  • TXT (v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:1.2.3.4 ~all) - a record from my server for host.king.com
  • TXT (v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=...) - a record from my server for host.king.com

  NOTE: A downside here is that I'm using host.king.com which is unrelated to site.com, which I don't think matters except for branding reasons. I will update the scenarios as soon as I test them - my registrar currently experiencing outages with Cloudflare API and editing DNS is disabled.

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  vatra

  • November 04, 2023 13:45

  OK, there were some errors in the previous post. I'll lay out the setup once again and how I was able to achieve it.

  • I have two sites, boss.com and site.com.
  • boss.com is hosted on my server.
  • site.com doesn't have hosting and is only parked at the domain registrar (DNS is hosted at the registrar).
  • site.com's only purpose is to protect an alternate name of boss.com so I created a 301 redirection at the domain registrar from *.site.com to boss.com.
  • But I still want to host email for site.com on my server so I parked it on my server to create email accounts (remember, its DNS is still hosted at the registrar).
  • I added the following records to the site.com's DNS at the registrar (my records are blue): A site.com 9.9.9.9 ==> resolves to host.registrar.com
CNAME *.site.com host.registrar.com
    [COLOR=rgb(41, 105, 176)]A mail.site.com 5.6.7.8
MX site.com mail.site.com
    
  • Mail is successfully hosted, but because of the [COLOR=rgb(41, 105, 176)]A mail.site.com 5.6.7.8
    record the redirection from *.site.com to boss.com now has an exception for mail.site.com which now points to my server. Since it is pointed to my server where site.com is parked, Apache classifies parked site.com as a ServerAlias. So, when you type mail.site.com in the browser's address bar, boss.com's content is shown but mail.site.com is still present in the address bar. I can only explain this with the fact that ServerAlias is just a domain mask for its main domain.
  • So I added a 301 redirection in boss.com's .htaccess file from mail.site.com to boss.com.

  Voila! My thread about

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • November 06, 2023 13:23

  That sounds like the perfect way to handle that.

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