[deanhills]

Background
The last time I tried Yandex two years ago, I couldn't get anywhere as the system dragged and I couldn't get past creating an account. I used to use Zoho mail for a long while and found it fairly easy to configure.  However just noticed Zoho has dropped their number of free domain users to five.  Yandex number is 1000.  

I've just started to get into Yandex again, and this time speed wise and access wise it's much easier, however I'm confused.  I managed to verify my domain by adding a yandex.html folder to the public folder of my domain.  But immediately after saying in my Yandex Dashboard the domain has been verified it says the MX records have not been created. HOWEVER when I navigate to the Yandex DNS Manager the MX records are there. I guess they're there to be added to either my VestaCP Domain DNS or Domain Registrar records?

Question
The domain is on my VestaCP and I'm planning to still create a WordPress site on it. I only want to use Yandex for hosting my mail, not my domain. My confusion is where do I need to add MX records or any other records (what are they?) - VestaCP or my Domain Registrar or both?

What Yandex records do I need to change or add to:

1. VestaCP DNS Manager Records?
2. Domain Registrar Records?

[rudra]

if you are using ns servers provided by your domain registrar, then you should add mx records there (along with other records like spf).
in case you have delegated dns record keeping to some other name servers by adding ns records at your domain registrar, then you add mx record at the dashboard (or command line.. nano.. whatever) of that nameserver provider.

I know my reply is really short.. sorry.. I dunno what else I could add.

let me try once more.... ahem

you add all such records to your name servers. so wherever your name servers (NS) are managed, you head there.

example. Let us talk about eu dot org domains.

say i got MyDomainExtension dot eu dot org

now I can either add only NS records for this domain and then I could say use name servers from dns dot afraid dot org (free) or some other dns hosting provider to manage dns records for my domain.

or,

i could add a cname aaaa txt spf records etc for this domain right there so the eu dot org name servers get used for this.
i could also add ns records for subdomains under this MyDomainExtension dot eu dot org and delegate control over the associated records to some other nameservers.

re. HR is the fastest and the best as ever. yea... you need both spf and dkim for properly functioning mail system and delivery.

[Mashiro]

Login into your Yandex.Connect (formerly known as Yandex Custom Domain Mail). At the dashboard page click on the Admin tools option (the gear icon) to open the administration panel. In the administration panel select your domain (at the top in the left menu) that you want to manage if you have multiple domains in your account. If you only have one domain it will default to it automatically.

From there on click on DNS management in the left menu. It will open a list with DNS entries that exist at Yandex.Connect for your domain if you would have hosted your domain with the Yandex.Connect DNS servers. The important DNS records for you are shown below in the screenshot and are highlighted by red borders.

DNS record list:


The first record at the top is the MX record with the information: a) hostname @ equals your root domain (you can really just use @ as the hostname in your DNS manager when creating this MX record), b) the Yandex MX server and c) the priority of the MX server (rather important if Yandex would have multiple MX servers). The second record is the SPF and the third record is the DKIM record.

Now you have the three DNS records that you need to create at your DNS management panel at your domain registrar or wherever you actually create DNS records like A, AAAA, TXT and etc for your domain. That very well could be your VestaCP server if you have your domain and hosting for it managed there.


So login into your DNS management panel and create the MX record and the two TXT records (SPF and DKIM actually don't have their own DNS record type so they're TXT records). The DNS list at Yandex.Connect provides all information needed to create the records.

At the end your records should look like this (I use 1984.is for DNS management for my eu.org domains):



After that all there is waiting for you is the waiting game until the DNS records are fully valid across the world.

[deanhills]

Thanks very much for helping me @rudra and @"Hidden Refuge".  This is much appreciated.

My nose is in the direction of VestaCP for changes.  The way Hidden put it, it sounds about right.  I haven't made any changes at the domain registrar.

I already had done most of what HR had suggested at VestaCP:

I edited my MX record in VestaCP with the Yandex MX info
I edited my SPF record in VestaCP with the Yandex info

I then hesitated with the DKIM as when I tried to add it, VestaCP automatically added the host server name to the mail name that is given by Yandex.  Instead of just "mail" it said "mail._domainkey.name.host". Was wonderful though as when I submitted it VestaCP magically fixed it so it didn't have the extension added to it, so it should be OK now.  I have all three records in my VestaCP.

There's a record that wasn't in the DNS Records for my domain in VestaCP - CName - I've added that too with Yandex CName - was that OK to do?

mail       CNAME      domain.mail.yandex.net.

VestaCP has another TXT entry as well that I wonder if I have to remove it?  Like it looks like an e-mail authentication record even though I haven't installed an e-mail server on VestaCP - will it conflict with DKIM?:

_dmarc  TXT  "v=DMARC1; p=none"

Should I remove the above?


I now have 14 DNS records in VestaCP for the domain.  

1. CNAME (Yandex)

2. DKIM (Yandex)

3. SPF (Yandex)

4. MX (Yandex)

5. DMARC1 (VestaCP)

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. are all A records
IMAP, pop, SMTP, mail, ftp, www, @ for my IP (VestaCP)

13. and 14. are the two name servers in VestaCP, which are my registered name servers with my Domain Registrar

After all of the above Yandex Dashboard Domain still says MX records haven't been set up. I probably need to wait for the DNS to propagate.

[Mashiro]

There's a record that wasn't in the DNS Records for my domain in VestaCP - CName - I've added that too with Yandex CName - was that OK to do?

Not entirely necessary. When you open mail.yourdomain.ext it will redirect to domain.mail.yandex.net where you can login with your e-mail addresses. That's all. Just a redirection from your domain to the Yandex.Connect webmail client.


DMARC - I have no idea about this. Yandex.Connect doesn't seem to support it as it has no DMARC record in the list. The one configured by VestaCP by default has no real meaning because it is configured as "none". So the record itself is useless without a proper value and a mail provider that doesn't support DMARC.


Given that you host mail off site you can delete the POP3, IMAP and SMTP records actually as they're not necessary and won't work anyway with Yandex.Connect.

[deanhills]

OK.  I've removed the CNAME record I created.  I have 13 records now.

I checked mail.domain.ext and it can't find the site.  I guess I need to wait a few hours or so as maybe the DNS has to propagate first.

It still says in the Domain section of connect that my MX records haven't been set up.

[Mashiro]

Sometimes DNS changes are instant and sometimes you just have to wait. Nothing you can really do about it. It also depends on how frequent Yandex.Connect performs a background check and how often their DNS servers are refreshed when requesting the DNS records from your DNS servers.

[deanhills]

Sometimes DNS changes are instant and sometimes you just have to wait. Nothing you can really do about it. It also depends on how frequent Yandex.Connect performs a background check and how often their DNS servers are refreshed when requesting the DNS records from your DNS servers.

Exactly. And I think the biggest delay is with VestaCP. I found when I had to do the index.html authentication, that when I added the meta tag in the header of index.html, it wouldn't make the change. Like that was hours ago. I just went in now again into the index.html, and the meta tag is still not there.

At any rate, fortunately Yandex provides for other verification tools too. When I uploaded their yandex.html file, the verification worked.

The DNS of VestaCP isn't bad. I don't mind waiting though. I'll check again tomorrow. This was my project for today. Once things are working, I want to write a step by step tutorial for me.

Thanks for your help and support HR - this is MUCH appreciated. As always.

[deanhills]

18 hours after and still Yandex says

MX records for this domain have not been set up

I spent this morning reading in detail through its support instructions here:
https://yandex.com/support/domain/setting/connect.html

If one reads through the instructions looks as though Yandex also wants one to delegate one's domain to them for the mail to work. Or that's my interpretation.

So I went ahead and changed my name servers to Yandex Name Servers (in effect delegating my domain to Yandex)

Also it specifically asks for CNAME to be added, so I added that back in.

[rudra]

these two pages should clear your confusions..

https://yandex.com/support/connect/domains.html
https://yandex.com/support/connect/dns/mx.html#mx

it also seems I failed to show you how the whole system works...

are you using your own name servers to host the dns records for your domain / the ones from yandex / the ones from your domain registrar / another party?

check what you have entered at the domain registrar (they will be as ns records) to know that. then proceed there to configure the dns and mx....

edit. vestaCP is just a control panel. it is not the central hub or something... this is why people like HR prefer to do it manually when they can. please try to understand how the basic flow of activities runs in a system. then vestaCP will end up as more of a burden than a helpful tool. also you won't have to ask such simple questions. your own clear concept will show you what to look for and where to find it.

edit2.

here are links to "how to delegate your dns record to yandex nameservers".

https://yandex.com/support/domain/delegir.html
https://yandex.com/support/domain/domain/dns.html

if you are using these nameserver settings at your domain registrar, then you should use yandex domain settings or dns setting page (or whatever the fllk it is called) and enter mx records there (they usually create those entries automatically after verification if you delegate your domain to them).

i personally like to use cloudflare nameservers for dns record of my domains. so i add my mx records at cloudflare dns settings page.

if I had my own nameserver setup on my own vps and entered their details properly as ns records at the domain registrar dashboard, then I would be setting mx records at my own vps (directly editing through command line interface or using some vps control panel).