[DNS HELP] migrating mail server to google apps

[benslayton]

Ok so heres what i would like to know...

right now on my server we are using mail.mydomain.org for both the imap and pop server...

if i switch over to google apps then it will for me to use imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com

is there anything i can do in my dns settings to like forward mail.mydomain.org:110 to pop.gmail.com
mail.mydomain.org:993 to imap.gmail.com
mail.mydomain.org:25 to smtp.gmail.com

i would like to do this so i wouldnt have to have my users go into thier iphone or outlook and change the settings for thier account. I dont want them to have a hard time...

please let me know how positive you are about what you suggest becasue i want this to go as smoothly as possible with very little downtime. Email is VERY important to the users..

[thetestingsite]

I'm not 100% on this, but I believe you could (theoretically) use a CNAME record to point your mail domain to gmail; however, the reason I'm not 100% on this is because I'm not sure if a mail client can actually handle that kind of request. I've never really tried to do something like this, so I will play around with it to see.

Hope this helps nonetheless.

[benslayton]

ya that was something that i had thought about. i guess i could setup a test domain or something. btw i have plesk with root access on a centos server.

[thetestingsite]

I just tested and it does work. In my Outlook settings, I pointed the server to mail.domain.com (which in the dns is pointed as a CNAME to imap.gmail.com). It worked without question.

Hope this helps.

[tfit]

Ok so heres what i would like to know...

right now on my server we are using mail.mydomain.org for both the imap and pop server...

if i switch over to google apps then it will for me to use imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com

is there anything i can do in my dns settings to like forward mail.mydomain.org:110 to pop.gmail.com
mail.mydomain.org:993 to imap.gmail.com
mail.mydomain.org:25 to smtp.gmail.com

i would like to do this so i wouldnt have to have my users go into thier iphone or outlook and change the settings for thier account. I dont want them to have a hard time...

please let me know how positive you are about what you suggest becasue i want this to go as smoothly as possible with very little downtime. Email is VERY important to the users..

I don't complete understand what you're saying so my first impression would be it's impossible. If you don't want your users to have to change their smtp/pop server, they still would request mail from mail.mydomain.org. So what is the need for gmail? If you want to use gmail imap service you could use aliases on your mailserver and redirect gmail account messages to mydomain accounts. But in your case you want mydomain to gmail. You could forward your mail to gmail, but your users wouldn't be able to fetch it since they haven't changed their settings. Last consideration: do they allow their mail being indexed?

[tfit]

I just tested and it does work. In my Outlook settings, I pointed the server to mail.domain.com (which in the dns is pointed as a CNAME to imap.gmail.com). It worked without question.

Hope this helps.

I see I'm wrong. Do you still need mx records with imap? I'm confused: google letting you edit their mx records?

[benslayton]

the google apps service. google.com/a allows u to point ur mx to google and use gmail 4 email. i am gonna use it because my host takes the server down 4 upgrades etc every month or so an i dont want my users to miss email. sorry 4 the bad communication im on my phones wap browser

[tfit]

Ok learned something new today. Is it just the mailserver or the whole server? I mean dns is still working i hope when they do upgrades

[benslayton]

Ok learned something new today. Is it just the mailserver or the whole server? I mean dns is still working i hope when they do upgrades

yea thats the thing i am worried about... i should contact support about the issue. I have the (dv) service from mediatemple.net btw, just in case anyone knows....

My domain is through a different copmany though... i wonder if I could change some things over there?

[tfit]

:) It's not a matter of could, you should :p. They control your dns records. But of course that is the data you fill in of your isp. So your domain will get resolved, but not accessed when your isp does updates. But now your using gmail who knows.
client --> dns request --> domain register --> gmail. Seems plausible.

[benslayton]

ok so first i would point mail.mydomain.com to ??? Would it be a port forward. Crap im confused...

[tfit]

It's a bit blurry to me too. I see you can point cname records to gmail, but what about your mx records? If you point them directly to gmail what is the point of having a hosting provider? Not speaking about your webserver for a moment.
I'm reading this http://www.zytrax.com/books/dns/ch8/cname.html to see if I can grasp it.

[benslayton]

Ok so it works here... Is what i have done....

follow the google instuctions by changing the mx record to thiers which is "10 ASPMX.L.google.com"

Then i point mail.mydomain.com to "imap.gmail.com" as a cname. And surprisingly somehow smtp works too....

hmm oddd

i did figure out that my dns should still work if the server goes down. Different from server....

I am almost set to go.. now i need to get the IMAP migration setup then it'll be rocking!!!

[tfit]

So mailserver of your hostingprovider is completely cut out of the loop. Good for you. But remember earlier question: what about indexing users mail?

[benslayton]

Indexing?

[tfit]

Isn't all gmail indexed by google?

[benslayton]

Isn't all gmail indexed by google?

for search purposes maybe.?.?.?.?

[tfit]

That is what google will say. But your data is just business.