{"id":1352,"date":"2014-03-08T15:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebeagle.itgroove.net\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2023-02-24T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T21:48:32","slug":"o365-dns-for-dummies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/","title":{"rendered":"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big things that seems to trip up a lot of people when they attempt to move to Office 365 are the DNS requirements that Microsoft expects you to have in place.&nbsp; If you are not used to messing about with DNS the requirements can look a bit daunting.&nbsp; And if your present DNS provider doesn\u2019t support the record types that Microsoft uses and\/or does not make life easy for you to make the changes then the move to O365 can be pretty frustrating.<\/p>\n<p>So, to make your life a bit easier, here is Rob\u2019s O365 DNS primer (for those of you that already \u201cget it\u201d you should move along as there is nothing new here):<\/p>\n<p>First, just what the heck IS a DNS record?&nbsp; Well, I\u2019m glad you asked because there is nothing really mystical about it.&nbsp; In simple terms, a DNS record maps things like website names or server connections (think <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itgroove.net\">www.itgroove.net<\/a> or mail.itgroove.net) to an IP address.&nbsp; DNS records are what allow systems and people to find specific resources on the Internet.&nbsp; You look up a name and you get the address in a similar fashion to looking up a name in a phone book or in the Yellow Pages and getting a phone number in return.&nbsp; Of course there are some complicated variants but the basic premise remains the same \u2026 look up something and get specific information back.<\/p>\n<p>There are m any types of DNS records and each type does something specific.&nbsp; O365 expects you to be able to set the following types:<\/p>\n<li><strong>A record<\/strong>:&nbsp; this is a simple pointer, a name to IP reference.&nbsp; Something like remote.company.com points to 111.222.333.444 (or something similar)<\/li>\n<li><strong>CNAME:<\/strong>&nbsp; this is an alias or a re-direct that maps one name to another; whatever you map TO must already exist and resolve correctly.&nbsp; O365 will give you some CNAME records to set up like <strong>autodiscover.yourdomain.com<\/strong> which has to point to something like <strong>autodiscover.outlook.com<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>MX record:<\/strong> this is the \u201cbiggie\u201d as it tells all of the email servers in the world how to find your email server (which will now be O365).&nbsp; If you are migrating to O365 from another email system there is probably already an MX record in place that points at your old email server.&nbsp; You have to update the record and once it propagates throughout the Internet other email servers will know to connect to O365 to send email to you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TXT record:<\/strong>&nbsp; this is kind of a \u201cgeneric\u201d entry that allows you to enter a lot of text.&nbsp; It is for information or instructions.&nbsp; Microsoft uses a TXT record to record <strong>SPF <\/strong>information for your domain (Sender Policy Framework) which helps other email servers confirm your email server\u2019s identity (it is a valid email server for your domain) as well as valid IP addresses for your email server. Many email servers will NOT accept email form or send email to email severs that don\u2019t have corresponding SPF records so this one is pretty critical.&nbsp;&nbsp; Note:&nbsp; many DNS systems allow you to actually create and publish an SPF record directly but Microsoft chooses to use the TXT record type for this info.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SRV record:<\/strong>&nbsp; this is a very specialized record that Microsoft uses to identify the SIP service records needed to support Lync services in O365.&nbsp; Chances are it is this record type that will give you the most grief if your DNS provider\u2019s system is older or clunky.<\/li>\n<p>Microsoft lists DNS providers that work well with O365 and they also suggest, strongly, that if you have issues setting up the required records that you change DNS providers to one that is more \u201cfriendly\u201d.&nbsp; I concur wholeheartedly.&nbsp; See my post <a href=\"https:\/\/thebeagle.itgroove.net\/2014\/02\/15\/check-your-dns-provider-before-diving-in-to-office365\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> about painful issues with a dumb DNS provider that were resolved in about 10 minutes by changing to a DNS provider with decent tools and a modern backend.&nbsp; There is <strong>no reason whatsoever <\/strong>for your move to O365 to be blocked by DNS issues.&nbsp; If your provider can\u2019t do the job, dump them.&nbsp; The Internet (and DNS) is ruthlessly Darwinian \u2013 the dumb provider will either \u201cget it\u201d or die.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind when setting up DNS records that if your provider allows you to control the \u201clifetime\u201d or the \u201ctime to live\u201d that shorter times are better than longer.&nbsp; If you mess something up you want it to die off quickly so that your fixed updates take effect sooner.&nbsp; Also keep in mind that it can take time for your DNS updates to propagate across the web.&nbsp; If you are able to control where you <strong>QUERY<\/strong> external DNS (lookup) then I suggest you point at Google\u2019s DNS servers \u2013 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 \u2013 because they update incredibly fast.&nbsp; I\u2019ve seen Google catch DNS changes made at a DNS provider inside of 30 seconds from the point the DNS provider accepted the DNS change.&nbsp; It\u2019s a great way to see if your changes are what you want.&nbsp; Also, the DNS test inside O365 will pick up the changes fairly quickly and once you get past the DNS test you are away to the races in terms of your O365 tenancy.<\/p>\n<p>I hope this helps clarify O365\u2019s DNS requirements a little bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big things that seems to trip up a lot of people when they attempt to move to Office 365 are the DNS requirements that Microsoft expects you to have in place.&nbsp; If you are not used to messing about with DNS the requirements can look a bit daunting.&nbsp; And if your present &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[365,461,526,575,578],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d - Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d - Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the big things that seems to trip up a lot of people when they attempt to move to Office 365 are the DNS requirements that Microsoft expects you to have in place.&nbsp; If you are not used to messing about with DNS the requirements can look a bit daunting.&nbsp; And if your present &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-08T23:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-24T21:48:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sean Wallbridge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sean Wallbridge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\",\"name\":\"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d - Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-08T23:26:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-24T21:48:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/74e1c0def190f181c1394c2b6d883e77\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog Archive\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Archive\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/74e1c0def190f181c1394c2b6d883e77\",\"name\":\"Sean Wallbridge\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/adf8cea6291c39d166616f2148d919a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/adf8cea6291c39d166616f2148d919a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sean Wallbridge\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/author\/swallbridge\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d - Archive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/regroove.ca\/archive\/2014\/03\/08\/o365-dns-for-dummies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"O365 \u2013 DNS for \u201cDummies\u201d - Archive","og_description":"One of the big things that seems to trip up a lot of people when they attempt to move to Office 365 are the DNS requirements that Microsoft expects you to have in place.&nbsp; 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