Traffic Manager MX Record

Phil 6

I'd like to use Traffic Manager for an application which also requires an MX record for the same FQDN.

Web traffic will use https://myapp.customerdomain.com and we will also handle email such as user@tanjian .customerdomain.com.

https://serverfault.com/a/29323/75499 an answer here suggests that this is possible but requires that the load balancer holds an MX record for email. I can't see any way to achieve this using Azure Traffic Manager. Is this possible?

Edit: The same question also applies to TXT records which RFC1034 appears to prohibit.

KapilAnanth-MSFT 36,861 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-07-14T14:10:12.783+00:00

Hi @Phil ,

Just checking in to see if the below answer helped. If this answers your query, please don’t forget to click "Accept the answer" and Up-Vote for the same, which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further queries do let us know.

Thanks,
Kapil

1 answer

KapilAnanth-MSFT 36,861 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-07-13T18:25:39.017+00:00
Hi @Phil ,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & I hope you are doing well.
I understand that you would like to know if we can add a MX record in Traffic Manager.

Please note that Traffic Manager is a DNS-based Load Balancer

It only points the requests to different endPoints depending on the routing mechanism configured

The traffic never passes through Traffic Manager

Refer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/traffic-manager/traffic-manager-how-it-works

Now, Traffic Manager does not have any mechanism to manage DNS Zone/Records . This is by design

Let's say your application is myapp.customerdomain.com and you have created a CNAME to make it point to Traffic Manager Profile (myapp.trafficmanager.net)

So, if your requirement is to have an MX record configured on myapp.trafficmanager.net, I am afraid that this is not feasible.

Kindly let me know if there are any follow-up questions, I shall try my best to address them.

Thanks,
Kapil.

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2 people found this answer helpful.
Phil 6 Reputation points

2022-07-18T16:14:48.97+00:00

Thanks for the response but this doesn't really add any insight or give me any hints at a practical solution

KapilAnanth-MSFT 36,861 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-07-19T16:33:38.067+00:00

Hi @Phil ,

I understand your concern.

Can you please provide more details on your environment/architecture?

Can you let us know your exact requirement?

Is the backend an Azure App Service?

Best Regards,
Kapil.

Phil 6 Reputation points

2022-07-27T10:52:25.393+00:00

We have an app currently hosted on a single instance of Azure App Service. We want to use Traffic Manager for scalability/redundancy and so that our clients can delegate control to us.

The requirement is that we wish to use the same record for the app and for outbound (and soon inbound) email. This will initially use MailGun but we wan the ability to move this around seamlessly without our customer's needing to change their DNS.

Web traffic will use https://myapp.customerdomain.com and we will also handle email such as user@tanjian .customerdomain.com. I don't think this is an unreasonable goal?

My understanding is that a CNAME cannot be used for the same record as an MX or TXT record. So we can chain as many CNAMEs together upstream, but ultimately whichever DNS server is providing the final A record, needs to also handle these additional records. It looks like Azure simply doesn't support this scenario.

KapilAnanth-MSFT 36,861 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-07-27T14:19:01.923+00:00

Hi @Phil ,

Thanks for the update.

Your domain name is myapp.customerdomain.com
Now, if you are using Traffic Manager, the above domain will return a CNAME record for Traffic Manager's domain. Let's say, myapp.trafficmanager.net

Per your requirement, your domain "myapp.customerdomain.com" should return a CNAME record and an MX record.
I do not think this is feasible. This is not RFC compliant.

The serverfault QnA you have shared, also mentions the same.

Now, if your goal is to let the "myapp.customerdomain.com" resolve the CNAME of Traffic Manager and configure an MX(for mail) +A/CNAME record(for endPoint) on Traffic Manager, it's not possible.

Traffic Manager only supports the addition of endPoints.

It has no capability to host DNS records.

What you are facing is a DNS limitation and is not specific to the Platform.

Thanks,
Kapil.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please don’t forget to close the thread by clicking "Accept the answer" wherever the information provided helps you, as this can be beneficial to other community members.

Phil 6 Reputation points

2022-07-27T14:30:15.63+00:00

It isn't a DNS limitation - the link I included explains the solution - it's just not yet supported by Traffic Manager. I don't expect it to be implemented but perhaps you could raise a feature request?

Phil 6 Reputation points

2022-07-27T14:30:45.487+00:00

Answer: Traffic Manager doesn't support this

KapilAnanth-MSFT 36,861 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-07-27T16:12:18.677+00:00

Hi @Phil ,

Traffic Manager is designed as a Load Balancing solution.

Sure.
Please feel free to share your feedback in our hub: https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/forum/8ae9bf04-8326-ec11-b6e6-000d3a4f0789.

Our Product Group may add it to the roadmap based on more users' feedback and visibility.

Thanks,
Kapil.
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Traffic Manager MX Record

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