Newbie MX Q. - Not Propagating?

[Mark_Andrews at isc.org]

> Hi folks --
> 
> I'm not very experienced with DNS matters, and I did check various FAQ's 
> but still no luck.  I'm hoping someone can help.
> 
> We're moving all our services (mail + web) from an old Sun box to an NT 
> box.  We updated the DNS records last night at 6pm through our co-location 
> ISP (Verio) as well as the MX records.
> 
> Last night and this morning, any location I check points to the new NT box 
> for web and regular DNS resolution, and seems (I know less about this part) 
> to have the new machine for the MX record too.  I can see various people 
> starting to check for mail on the new server so I know their domain 
> resolution has updated too.
> 
> But all the mail is still arriving on the old Sun box.  Does it take longer 
> for MX-related things to update?  Is there someone I can call?  :-) Very 
> frustrating.  Any suggestions you can make would be great, or any tool 
> recommendations as well, I'm a little worried that we'll reach Monday 
> morning without any luck.
> 
> The domains involved are:
> 
> dma.net
> eemc.com
> 
> The old Sun box is at 207.226.160.20, the new box is at 209.207.172.57
> 
> Thanks again.
> 
> -- Dave  
> 

	Firstly you don't need the same host in the MX records twice.

	Secondly MX records should not point to CNAMES.  They should
	point to A records and the ownernames of those A records
	should be the names the machines know themselves by.  Failure
	to do this can cause delivery problems.

	Thirdly provide the old mail site is seeing the new MX
	records you just need to configure its MTA to *not* treat
	the addresses for local delivery.  The MTA will then forward
	the mail to your new MTA.  Do however ensure that the allow
	them to be relayed through the old site until all the records
	in various caches expire.

	Mark

; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> mx dma.net 
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	dma.net, type = MX, class = IN

;; ANSWER SECTION:
dma.net.		23h56m52s IN MX  0 pop.dma.net.
dma.net.		23h56m52s IN MX  10 pop.dma.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dma.net.		23h57m2s IN NS	ns1.dn.net.
dma.net.		23h57m2s IN NS	ns2.dn.net.

;; Total query time: 1 msec
;; FROM: drugs.dv.isc.org to SERVER: default -- 127.0.0.1
;; WHEN: Mon Dec  3 09:14:08 2001
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 25  rcvd: 100


; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> pop.dma.net. 
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	pop.dma.net, type = A, class = IN

;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.dma.net.		23h56m44s IN CNAME  www.dma.net.
www.dma.net.		23h56m44s IN A	209.207.172.57

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dma.net.		23h56m44s IN NS  ns2.dn.net.
dma.net.		23h56m44s IN NS  ns1.dn.net.

;; Total query time: 1 msec
;; FROM: drugs.dv.isc.org to SERVER: default -- 127.0.0.1
;; WHEN: Mon Dec  3 09:14:26 2001
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 29  rcvd: 102

--
Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at isc.org