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How To Configure DNS for Rackspace in cPanel

Rackspace offers email hosting services, very similar to Google’s Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, and Microsoft’s Office365.

If if you have signed up for Rackspace Email, in this tutorial will guide you to configure DNS for Rackspace email in cPanel.

Additionally, this Knowledge Base Article covers Rackspace Email and Email Plus, which use the same server settings at Rackspace, not Office365 or Hosted Exchange Services.[/ht_message]

How To Configure DNS for Rackspace in cPanel

Step 1: Login to your cPanel. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but the sure fire easiest way is to login to your Client Area, then open your cPanel.

Step 2: In the Domains section of cPanel, click Zone Editor.

Step 3: When the Zone Editor has opened, choose the domain you want to modify from the Domains list, and click the Manage button on the right side.

Step 4: Using the Filter at the top, click MX to hide the irrelevant records.

Step 5: Delete the current MX record by clicking the Delete button to the right of the record.

You will be asked to confirm – “Are you sure you wish to delete this record?” Click Continue.

You will be returned to a full view of all your DNS records.

Step 6: Next, we need to add a new MX record. To do this, click the downward facing triangle next to the blue + Add Record button on the right side and choose Add “MX” Record:

You will see the Zone Records screen has created an empty row for the new record:

Three of the fields in the new row are editable. Let’s examine these:

Their MX Records are as follows:

Your completed record should look like the one below:

Once you’ve entered the record information, click the blue Add Record button.

You should see a green box appear in the top right corner with the text: Success: You successfully added the MX record for “cchostingdemos.com”.

Next, you need to repeat the process to add the second MX record.

To do this, click the downward facing triangle next to the blue + Add Record button on the right side and choose Add “MX” Record:

You will see the Zone Records screen has created an empty row for the new record:

Three of the fields in the new row are editable. Let’s examine these:

The first field is the name of the record. For this, you can leave it as-is.
The second field is the Priority of the Record. Enter 20 here. 
The third field is the destination, which for Rackspace is: mx2.emailsrvr.com 

Your completed record should look like the one below:
Congrats! You’ve setup the MX Records for your domain to use Rackspace Email. But you aren’t done yet.
Step 7: Next, you need to setup the SPF record for Rackspace so your messages are properly delivered. To do this, click the downward facing triangle to the right of + Add Record and choose Add “TXT” Record.
As with the new MX entries, a new row will appear for you enter your record details. For this record, there are three fields you can edit. Let’s examine them:
For Name, enter yourdomainname.tld
For Type, ensure it is set to TXT.
For Record, copy and paste this text: v=spf1 include:emailsrvr.com ~all 
Your record should look like the image below:

Add the record by clicking the blue Add Record button. You should see a green box appear in the top right corner with the text: Success: You successfully added the following TXT record for “yourdomain.tld”: yourdomain.tld.

Congrats! You’ve now setup a SPF record to ensure mail sent from your domain via Rackspace is delivered properly at the other end. You’re 90% done!
Step 8: Next you need to configure the last setting – autodiscover.
Autodiscover is a useful record to have in your DNS as it assists email clients on smartphones and computers in configuring themselves automatically, without you having to remember the POP3 or IMAP and SMTP server settings. 😏
Once again, click the downward facing triangle to the right of + Add Record and choose Add “CNAME” Record.
As with the other records we’ve added, a new empty record row will be added. In this row, enter the following information:
For name enter autodiscover
For Type, ensure CNAME is chosen from the dropdown menu.
For Record, enter autodiscover.emailsrvr.com
Your record should look like the one below:
Click the blue Add Record button to save this record to your DNS configuration. You should see a green text box appear in the top right corner with the text: Success: You successfully added the following CNAME record for “yourdomain.tld”: autodiscover.yourdomain.tld.

And that’s it for DNS record settings. Just one other setting left, the very last one and it’s super easy!

Return to the main cPanel screen by clicking the squares in the top left corner.
Next, look for the Email Section and click Email Routing to open these settings:
Choose your domain from the domains menu and the Configure Email Routing option will appear:
As you can see, the current configuration setting is “Local”. To cPanel, this means you’re going to be using integrated POP3 or IMAP + SMTP functions, and/or webmail. Because you’ve just switched your email to Rackspace, that is no longer the case and you need to change the setting to Remote Mail Exchange for that to work properly.
Select the Remote Mail Exchange setting then click the blue Change button to save the change.
Congrats! Your mail is now hosted by Rackspace. Be sure you tell your users to use Rackspace’s webmail. The URL for Rackspace Mail is: https://apps.rackspace.com/
If your users need help configuring their client devices, Rackspace has a convenient tool located here which will help them do just that.
Updated on January 27, 2021
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