A God way to Change MX Records
Email is critical to a business, and it’s continued flow is paramount.
When changing MX records (for example a company aquisition or the purchase of an email filtering solution) you should always be careful not to break anything. A lot of systems use MX records as a way to check spam mail, and if they don’t work you may have problems sending and receiving emails.
A way we discovered to make sure you don’t break email goes along the following which although takes eight calendar days in which to implement fully, it is a belt and braces approach and is definitely safe.
Assume you’ve just bought a hosted email security service and they have given you the servers mx1.emailprovider.com and mx2.emailprovider.com to change your own records to.
Day 1 MX Records
mx1.companya.com = 111.222.333.111
mx2.companya.com = 111.222.333.112
MX preference = 10, mail exhanger = mx1
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2
Day Two MX Records
mx1.companya.com = 111.222.111.111
mx2.companya.com = 111.222.111.112
mx1.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.111
mx2.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.112
MX preference = 10, mail exhanger = mx1
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2
MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = mx1.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = mx2.emailprovider.com.
Day Four (Yes Day Four) MX Records
mx1.companya.com = 111.222.111.111
mx2.companya.com = 111.222.111.112
mx1.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.111
mx2.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.112
MX preference = 10, mail exhanger = mx1
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx1.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2.emailprovider.com.
Day Six (Day Six) MX Records
mx1.companya.com = 111.222.111.111
mx2.companya.com = 111.222.111.112
mx1.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.111
mx2.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.112
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx1.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 100, mail exhanger = mx1
MX preference = 100, mail exchanger = mx2
Day Eight MX Records
mx1.companya.com = 111.222.111.111
mx2.companya.com = 111.222.111.112
mx1.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.111
mx2.emailprovider.com = 222.111.111.112
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx1.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2.emailprovider.com.
MX preference = 100, mail exhanger = mx1 Deleted
MX preference = 100, mail exchanger = mx2 Deleted
Don’t forget to update your firewall rules accordingly.
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