{"id":207,"date":"2025-03-27T12:49:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2025-03-27T12:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:49:03","slug":"how-to-configure-external-mx-records-on-a-linux-plesk-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/plesk\/how-to-configure-external-mx-records-on-a-linux-plesk-server\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Configure External MX Records on a Linux Plesk Server?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your domain uses <strong>external MX records<\/strong> and is hosted on a <strong>Linux Plesk server<\/strong>, you need to update the settings in <strong>Plesk<\/strong> to ensure emails are routed correctly. Follow the steps below to configure your domain for an <strong>external email server<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Step 1: Update DNS Records for the Domain<br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Modify the <strong>DNS settings<\/strong> to point to the external email provider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2705 <strong>Change or Add MX Records<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Set <strong>MX records<\/strong> to the external email server with the correct priorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2705 <strong>Modify Mail-Related DNS Records<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Remove CNAME<\/strong> for <code>mail.domain.com<\/code> if it\u2019s not needed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Edit the CNAME<\/strong> to point to the external email server (usually provided by the email provider).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Add an A record<\/strong> for <code>mail.domain.com<\/code> if required, pointing to the external mail server\u2019s IP address.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u23f3 <strong>DNS propagation may take<\/strong> <strong>12 to 24 hours<\/strong>, so changes might not reflect immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Step 2: Disable Mail Service in Plesk<br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After configuring the external <strong>MX records<\/strong>, disable the Plesk mail service to avoid conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1\ufe0f\u20e3 <strong>Log in to Plesk as Admin<\/strong><br>2\ufe0f\u20e3 Navigate to <strong>Domains<\/strong><br>3\ufe0f\u20e3 Find and <strong>select the domain<\/strong><br>4\ufe0f\u20e3 Click on <strong>Mail<\/strong> (dropdown menu)<br>5\ufe0f\u20e3 Select <strong>Mail Settings<\/strong><br>6\ufe0f\u20e3 Under <strong>Mail Preferences<\/strong>, <strong>uncheck<\/strong> the option:<br>\u2705 <em>\u201cActivate mail service on domain\u201d<\/em><br>7\ufe0f\u20e3 Click <strong>OK<\/strong> to save the changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Step 3: Update qmail Configuration (If Required)<br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the mail service is disabled, <strong>Plesk should automatically remove<\/strong> the domain from qmail\u2019s configuration files. However, if emails are still being routed incorrectly, manually check the following files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udcc2 Remove the domain from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">\/var\/qmail\/control\/rcpthosts<br>\/var\/qmail\/control\/virtualdomains<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After removing entries, the <strong>server will fetch MX records from the updated DNS<\/strong> and use the external email provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Final Check:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2714 <strong>Ensure MX records have propagated<\/strong> using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">dig MX domain.com<strong><br><\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2714 <strong>Test email delivery<\/strong> by sending emails to and from your domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By following these steps, your domain will properly route emails through the external mail server while avoiding conflicts with the <strong>Plesk email service<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your domain uses external MX records and is hosted on a Linux Plesk server, you need to update the settings in Plesk to ensure emails are routed correctly. Follow the steps below to configure your domain for an external email server. Step 1: Update DNS Records for the Domain Modify the DNS settings to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[128,129,115,131,116,130],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plesk","tag-configure-external-mx-records-in-plesk","tag-disable-plesk-mail-service-for-external-email","tag-dubai","tag-qmail-external-email-configuration","tag-server-management","tag-set-up-external-email-on-linux-plesk-server"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.24x7serverguard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}