Bulk Email Guide: DNS Records

Now it's time to set DNS records for the domain we'll use on our Main Server in our Bulk Email Network. For the sake of this guide, we are using CloudFlare, but you can use any other DNS hosting.

To refresh your memory, the main server is the server where your Email Marketing Software (EMS) is installed (Mumara, Interspire Email Marketer, MailWizz, Mautic, ...). Then we also have MTA servers where PowerMTA is installed. These servers are doing all the sending. This is just one layer of protection to keep your MTA servers away from your Main server. In case there is ever a problem your main server will never be taken down since it's not doing any sending at all. MTA server can be any budget VPS with at least 1GB RAM and you can add as many as you want. Your main server should be a more powerful VPS (16GB RAM recommended).

Our Main server is up and running but for now, it only has A and AAAA records (if you have IPv6) set. Take a look at the table below and set your DNS records accordingly.

 

TYPE NAME VALUE STATUS
A @ MAIN_SERVER_IPv4 OFF
A HOSTNAME MAIN_SERVER_IPv4 OFF
AAAA @ MAIN_SERVER_IPv6 OFF
AAAA HOSTNAME MAIN_SERVER_IPv6 OFF
CNAME www @ OFF
MX @ HOSTNAME.EXAMPLE.COM OFF
TXT @ v=spf1 mx a ptr ~all OFF
TXT _dmarc v=DMARC1; p=none OFF
[/sociallocker]

 

Since this server isn't doing any sending at all there is no need to set DKIM keys, but if you want you can do it from control panel.

  • First, login to control panel as root
  • Go to "Email > Mail Server Manager" and check boxes like in the picture below. If you don't want Antivirus and rDNS checker just select "Installs DKIM & SPF, enables DKIM for New Accounts and Domains" and make sure your hostname and domain are correct. This are correct formats:
  • Hostname - hostname.example.com
  • Domain - example.com
  • When everything looks fine, click on "Rebuild Mail Server". It will take a few minutes to complete.
  • Now go to "Email > DKIM Manager" and click on "Edit Records" for your main domain.
  • Search for "default._domainkey" and copy/paste it to your CLoudFlare account like  this

 

TYPE NAME VALUE
TXT default._domainkey v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=YOUR_KEY

 

All emails you send from your Main server will now be signed with this DKIM key.

If you want to add email accounts on your main doman go to "Email > Add Email Account" and follow instructions there. It's really simple.

 

Next step is to Install Email Marketing Software. You can use any email marketing application you want Interspire Email Marketer, MailWizz, Mautic, ... I do however suggest Mumara for its easy and full integration with PowerMTA. This is something that none of other email marketing applications has. In a long run, it will save you time and money when you will set up more MTA servers. Mumara also has some unique features and some you will only find with other EMS only if you use expensive add-ons (looking at Maborak).

This tutorial is a part of complete Do It Yourself Bulk Email Server Guide. If you are interested in starting with email marketing or want to improve your delivery, open and click rates I recommend that you follow it from the beginning. Almost 15 years in this business and many, many tests show that this is the best long-run solution for every mass email sender with double opt-in, scraped or bought list.

Join Hundreds of Happy Email Marketers!

Start the Guide Now!

ninjaDNS Records

8 comments

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  • ninja - 21/09/2017

    Here are most frequent problems users have in this step.

    None so far.

  • hidoprifo - 06/10/2017

    Note: If you gonna install Antivirus later on it will block some ports that power mta console management will need to be successfully installed.
    Just remember when you face any port problems if you try to install Power mta management console, stop the antivirus service and anything that comes with.
    when you’re done you can turn them back on.

  • allisong - 11/10/2017

    I keep getting this: (ERROR: You don’t have a valid hostname set!)

    and i could not find the article you wrote on “How to setup a hostname”

  • allisong - 11/10/2017

    should i create a subdomain as a hostname or what. I an so lost at this point

  • jnyyzzz - 21/10/2017

    1. Do we need to set the DNS records for the MTA domain in Cloudflare too?
    2. TXT Record @ @: Is this a TXT record of @ pointing to domain.com, or @ pointing to @?
    The ‘@’ in the TXT box doesn’t autocorrect the ‘@’ to domain.com.

    Please kindly reply. Thanks.

    ninja - 21/10/2017

    1. no need to use cloudflare, but you can
    2. @ is main domain

  • jnyyzzz - 27/10/2017

    So is the TXT Record supposed to TXT @ @ ,or TXT @ domain.com?
    Cloudflare auto-corrects @ to domain.com for A records, but does not do that in TXT record.

    ninja - 27/10/2017

    Sorry error on page. No need o add that TXT record


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