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A client has an internal Apple Server setup in their office that manages their domain (let's say it is example.com).

I have setup a subdomain of example.com (test.example.com) on Google Apps as I want to use email addresses under test.example.com for an app that I am building. The reasons for needing GMail aren't important - but I need it.

The problem arises when someone from their office tries to email [email protected].

For some reason the Apple server seems to be saying - "I am setup to manage example.com and hence all subdomains of it. I have looked - but I cannot find a subdomain of test.example.com - so the email is undeliverable".

How can I get the apple server to ignore test.example.com and all of its email?

bmike
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John
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  • Perhaps it's just me misunderstanding the issue, but if you are using gmail for "test.example.com" why is the server involved? Is the error on a normal mac email client? Or do you intend the clients to use your mail server but not gmail's servers? – bmike Sep 09 '11 at 12:16
  • He wants client to use the apple SMTP server, and have it relay to test.example.com. Apples SMTP is using it's local DB to try to figure out what to do with test.example.com and not checking MX records. (Or it might be checking MX records, and using it's local DNS server and getting itself) – zevlag Sep 09 '11 at 13:54
  • What version of OS X server are you running? – zevlag Sep 09 '11 at 13:55

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I'm starting this answer to talk through possibilities and will edit along the way:

As of Snow Leopard 10.6 apples MTA is Postfix you can find their docs here: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MailServicesAdmin_v10.6.pdf

http://www.postfix.org/documentation.html

1) On the OS X server, at a terminal, dig mx test.example.com What are the results? If it's the apple server, you need to change DNS records to point to gmail. (possibly on this same os x server, as it may see itself as authoritative for this domain)

zevlag
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  • Nice job - I'm assuming the same as your comments, but we'll see if the OP can confirm how we're seeing it. The dig will get to the nub of the issue - nicely done! – bmike Sep 09 '11 at 14:29
  • Thanks for this. Unfortunately - I am not in control of the Apple server - I'm just trying to debug the issue for the client. I'll get back to you on this as soon as I can... (i.e after I have someone try the dig command)... – John Sep 09 '11 at 14:42
  • Alright - so the dig command is showing the server itself in the Authority Section - so you are absolutely right. I've asked for the dns settings to be changed to fire out to gmail. But dont know if that works yet - and wont until Monday. I'll update you again then... – John Sep 09 '11 at 15:41
  • I know that when I moved all of my e-mail to Gmail a while back, the free version didn't let you handle subdomains... I had wanted [email protected] to go to gmail, but I was still hosting several mailing lists on my OS X server using Mailman, so I wanted [email protected] to be handled by the OS X server. Google said No... unless I paid for my Google Apps. So I moved the lists to another domain...

    I don't know if this is a barrier you will run into..

     – TheWellington Sep 09 '11 at 21:51