Can I redirect my naked domain to a different IP without breaking mail?

Maintenance
1

Hi all,

I’d like to change the A record for mydomain.com so that instead of pointing to the static site server built into MIAB, it points elsewhere.

This won’t break mail delivery, will it?

(I realize I could just use the MIAB server as a web host, but I’d rather keep my email separate from everything else, so I’m less likely to accidentally screw it up.)

Thanks,
Brandon

2

No, that’s not a problem.

Assume your box is named: box.yourdomain.com, you can safely point your domain.com and www.yourdomain.com to a different host.

3

Awesome, thanks.

I figured it would work, but I’d rather not take down my email just to find out.

Brandon

4

This will work, but only change your A / AAAA records. Not the MX/SPF and other records.

5

Surely this will break the certificate renewals as the challenge on the domain needs to find the MIAB website?

6

Please try it before guessing advice. The earlier comments are correct and it is a typical setup to have the main domain name (e.g. domain.com) point to a different server to serve a website, so long as the main domain name is not the same as the box’s hostname (typically box.domain.com). That’s because (all) mail uses a TLS certificate for the box’s hostname (not the main domain).

7

It “breaks” renewal of web certificates, but mail certs are still good since the email will originate from box.example.com

Installing let’s encrypt on the web server of your choice and setting up cron to do auto renew will work just as well as it does on MIAB.

8

Mmm I have been trying off and on for some months, under the mistaken belief that the web site cert was needed for mail, and inventing ways around it. As is usual within minutes of sending my post the truth dawned on me! So I am good to go now, albeit with the little frustration about the postfix recipient delimiter (address tagging) being ‘+’ only.
Thanks for the good work.

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