configuring sharepoint email settings part 1 - articles

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Jodan IT Pofeional> Aicle> Po> Configing ShaePoin Email eing Pa 1

7/24/2011

Configing ShaePoin Email eing Pa 1I have seen many people asking how to configure SharePoint email settings , in this article I will try to

explain Ins and Outs of configuring email in share point.

First we will discuss DNS and Email server setup theory:

Email server exist to send and receive email , there is two services/Protocols that are the core of mailing

system POP3 and SMTP.

POP3 i ed o eceie email

SMTP i ed o end email

nowadays a new service have been developed that relay on Http protocol such as the Hotmail connector or

the MS exchange outlook anywhere services , this new services has been developed to solve the problem

that some people faced with their ISP blocking SMTP and/or POP3 protocols due to spams , SharePoint

cant use the HTTP service so we will not discuss this service in this article.

we will build a simple environment that contains 4 machines to demonstrate the configuration. I suppose that

ou know how to install Active Director and join a machine to the domain , I will cover the DNS

configuration , Configuring SMTP server for SharePoint and Hmail Server configuration.

Back to the POP3/SMTP protocols , email servers use SMTP to send emails to other email servers , but

how the email server know about other email servers, Email servers depend on DNS through inquiring DNSserver for MX record to determine the IP address of the Email server they are sending email to.

Lets walk through example to see How to configure DNS for mail servers , Suppose that your are building

SharePoint testing environment that has email servers for Jitpros.local. based on the following Diagram:

JDC01 server 10.83.15.40 has Active Directory and DNS server


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SQLSRV Server 10.83.15.41 has hmail & SQL server installed

SPFound Server 10.83.15.43 has SharePoint installed and SMTP server feature

PC1 Workstation 10.83.15.44 has any client with Email client software

All machine will have their DNS server set to The AD server IP 10.83.15.40

Based on the Above Diagram you will end up with Two SMTP servers one on the Hmail server , that will be

used by client to send and receive emails , and anther one used by Share Point to receive email. the catchwith SharePoint that it does not have a client software to download email form mail server and also it cant

authenticate to email servers , (Note: Most email servers will deny sending emails if the client cant

authenticate with it , but we will allow SharePoint to send emails by configure email relay, you can also

configure windows SMTP services to authenticate when sending to specific domains using SMTP remote

Domain settings in IIS manager).

SharePoint use a local drop folder to pickup and receive emails , thats why you need to install SMTP on

it.To configure SharePoint to receive email you have two option.

1.Configure a separated Domain or subdomain for SharePoint Sever for example you could create a

Subdomain e.g. Sp.jitpros.local , so that all emails that are sent to SharePoint will have the subdomain suffix

sp.jitpros.local , when you enable a SharePoint list to receive email its address will be

[email protected]. The nice thing about this configuration that you dont need create a forward rule for

each mail list you enable at SharePoint in your email server.

2. The second Option is to keep your SharePoint email domain in the same root domain e.g Jitpros.local and

to use Hmail server or any other email server and create a rule that will forward email that are sent to

SharePoint lists to the SharePoint local SMTP server , which means each list that gets email enabled at

SharePoint should have a corresponding rule at Hmail server.

lets first configure hmail server DNS record:

For email server to function correctly it needs minimum two records , an A record and MX record , you can

also use a CA (conical name) record which simple and Alias to the A record or a second name to the same

device.the configuration will start on the DNS server as below:

1. On your DNS server Open the DNS manager , if your mail server is part of Domain and has dynamic DNS

registration enabled you will find a record to your hmail server already registered in DNS and has an A record

SQLSRV 10.83.15.41


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2. As a best practice its better to create a Conical Name (virtual name) for your email server, this will helpyou have constant mail server name in case you needed to change/move your physical email server to antehr

machine then you will not be stuck with the old physical machine name. it has been a common practice to

set two names for your email server one for POP3 services and one SMTP services in case you needed to

separate these two roles into different machines but in our case the two services are provide by the same

machine so will create two Conical Records that point to the same machine.

3. So while your on the DNS manager Console select the Zone of your Domain e.g. jitpros.local , right click

on the zone name and select new Alias (CNAME).

4. In the Ne Resource Record screen type SMTPin the Alias Namefield and click Brosebutton ,


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double click our DNS server name , double click forward lookup ones, Double click our Zone name

(jitpros.local) , scroll down and select our phsical mail server name e.g. SQLSRV and Click Ok.

5. Repeat step 4 but this time tpe POPin the Alias NameField , this will create two records

pop.jitpros,local and smtp.jitpros.local that point to the same phsical server sqlsrv. ou can check this b

pinging these names the should repla with same IP 10.83.15.41

6. After configuring the CNames record , we need to create an MX record that actuall inform other email

servers where to deliver email that are sent to our Domain, to create MX record right click the one name

and select New Mail exchange (MX) record

7.In the New Resource recordscreen , Keep the Host or Child domain filed empt ( which means an

email sent to our default domain name ) in the Full Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of mail server record


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type: smtp.jitpros.local (or press browse , double click your DNS server name , double click forward lookup

zones , Double click your Zone name (jitpros.local) , select all recordsform the record type drop box ,

scroll down and select your SMTP Conical name record and Click Ok) , then Click OK.

what we have done here is that we informed our DNS server that if some one will be sending email to any

user at the Domain jitpros.local , the email should be delivered to the sever that is named smtp.jitpros.local.

to test your configuration open a command prompt ant type:

c:\> nslookup

Default Server: jdc01.jitpros.local

Address: 10.83.15.40

> set tpe=MX

>jitpros.local

Server: jdc01.jitpros.local

Address: 10.83.15.40

jitpros.local MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = smtp.jitpros.local

sqlsrv.jitpros.local internet address = 10.83.15.41

8. Now its time to configure your Hmail Server settings , logon to the Hmail server at right click Domains

select add , type in your Domain Name e.g. jitpros.local , check the enabled box

9. under your new domain select Add AD account , select your domain name , and select the users account

that you want to create email account from them.

10. under setting> Protocols > SMTP , select the FRC complaint Tab make sure you select Allow plain

authentication .


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11. Most email server require authentication to allow users to send email , you can configure SMTP

authentication under settings >Advanced >IP Range > require SMTP Authentication > internet, under

require SMTP authentication select when the mail client should authencate to send email , by selecting any

of the option below. if you require that all user should authenticate before sending email (this is done so that

no one can use your server without authentication to send spam emails ) , select all check boxes.


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Your SharePoint server can send emails either through its local SMTP server or through Hmail

server , but since SharePoint server cant authenticate to SMTP server , you need to allow it to

send email through Hmail server without authentication if you decided to send all email through

Hmail server , To configure Hmail server to allow SharePoint server to send emails without

authentication , select IP Ranges > click add > type in a name for you SharePoint server , assignit a priority that is higherthan the other existing rages , clear the require authentication check box

for sending option that you need then click Save.


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12. You can now configure outlook or an email client to send and received email through this email server ,

notice that if ou configured require SMTP authentication , ou client should be configured to use SMTP

authentication.

13. ou can test our email serve b sending and receiving emails.


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