How to create DNS records for office 365

Add a TXT or MX record for verification

Before you use your domain with Office 365, we have to make sure that you own it. Your ability to log in to your account at your domain registrar and create the DNS record proves to Office 365 that you own the domain.

Find the area on your DNS hosting provider’s website where you can create a new record.

1. Sign in to your DNS hosting provider’s website.

2. Choose your domain.

3. Find the page where you can edit DNS records for your domain.

Create the record.

1. Depending on whether you are creating a TXT record or an MX record, do one of the following:

   • If you create a TXT record, use these values:

     Record Type	Alias or Host Name	Value	TTL
     TXT	Do one of the following: Type @ or leave the field empty or type your domain name. Note: Different DNS hosts have different requirements for this field.	MS=msXXXXXXXX Note: This is an example. Use your specific Destination or Points to Address value here, from the table in Office 365. How do I find this?	Set this value to 1 houror to the equivalent in minutes (60), seconds (3600), etc.

   • If you create an MX record, use these values:

     Record Type	Aliasor Host Name	Value	Priority	TTL
     MX	Type either @ or your domain name.	MS=msXXXXXXXX Note: This is an example. Use your specific Destination or Points to Address value here, from the table in Office 365. How do I find this?	For Priority, to avoid conflicts with the MX record used for mail flow, use a lower priority than the priority for any existing MX records. For more information about priority, see What is MX priority?	Set this value to 1 hour or to the equivalent in minutes (60), seconds (3600), etc.

2. Save the record.

Now that you've added the record at your domain registrar's site, you'll go back to Office 365 and request Office 365 to look for the record.

When Office 365 finds the correct TXT record, your domain is verified.

Choose Setup > Domains.

On the Domains page, choose the domain that you are verifying.

On the Setup page, choose Start setup.

On the Verify domain page, choose Verify.

Add MX record to route email

Add an MX record so email for your domain will come to Office 365. When you update your domain's MX record, all new email for anyone who uses your domain will now come to Office 365. Any email you already have will stay at your current email host, unless you decide to migrate email and contacts to Office 365.

Add three CNAME records

Follow the steps below to add the three CNAME records that are required for Office 365. If additional CNAME records are listed in Office 365, add those following the same general steps shown here.

On your DNS host’s website, you'll create three new CNAME records, typically one at a time.

1. In the boxes for each new record, type or copy and paste the following values. After you add each of the first three new records, choose to create another CNAME record.

   Record Type	Host	Points to	TTL
   CNAME (Alias)	autodiscover	autodiscover.outlook.com	1 hour
   CNAME (Alias)	lyncdiscover	webdir.online.lync.com	1 hour
   CNAME (Alias)	sip	sipdir.online.lync.com	1 hour

   Notes: 

   • For TTL: Set this value to 1 hour or to the equivalent in minutes (60), seconds (3600), etc.

   • These records do not apply to Exchange, Lync, or Skype for Business hybrid deployments.

2. When you've finished, save the records.

Add a TXT record for SPF to help prevent email spam

On your DNS host’s website, edit the existing SPF record or create a new TXT record for SPF.

1. In the boxes for the new record, type or copy and paste the set of values below that apply to your situation.

   • Record Type	Host	TXT Value	TTL
     TXT (Text)	@	v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all Note: We recommend copying and pasting this entry, so that all of the spacing stays correct.	1 hour

   For TTL: Set this value to 1 hour or to the equivalent in minutes (60), seconds (3600), etc.

2. When you've finished, save the record.

3. To validate your SPF record, use one of these SPF validation tools.

Add two SRV records

On your DNS host’s website, you'll create two new SRV records, typically one at a time. That is, after you add the first SRV record at the website, choose to create another SRV record.

1. In the boxes for each new record, type or copy and paste the following values. (See the notes below for creating SRV records when your DNS host doesn't have all of these as separate fields.)

   Record Type	Name	Target	Protocol	Service	Priority	Weight	Port	TTL
   SRV (Service)	@ (Or leave blank, if @ is not allowed)	sipdir.online.lync.com	_tls	_sip	100	1	443	1 hour
   SRV (Service)	@ (Or leave blank, if @ is not allowed)	sipfed.online.lync.com	_tcp	_sipfederationtls	100	1	5061	1 hour

   Notes: 

   • For Name: If your DNS host doesn't allow setting this to @, leave it blank. Use this approach only when your DNS host has separate fields for the Service and Protocol values. Otherwise, see the Service and Protocol notes below.

   • For Service and Protocol: If your DNS host doesn't provide these fields for SRV records, you must specify the Service and Protocol values as the record’s Name value. (Note: Depending on your DNS host, the Name field might be called something else, like: Host, Hostname, or Subdomain.) To set up the combined value, you create a single string, separating the values with a dot.

     For example: Name: _sip._tls

   • For Priority, Weight, and Port: If your DNS host doesn't provide these fields for SRV records, you must specify them as the record’s Target value. (Note: Depending on your DNS host, the Target field might be called something else, like: Content, IP Address, or Target Host.) To set up the combined value, you create a single string, separating the values with spaces and ending with a dot. The values must be included in this order: Priority, Weight, Port, Target.

     For example: Target: 100 1 443 sipdir.online.lync.com.

   • Variation for Priority, Weight, and Port: Some DNS hosts provide some, but not all, of the required fields separately. For these DNS host sites, specify the values that aren't shown separately as a combined string, in order, for the record’s Target value. (Note: Depending on your DNS host, the Target field might be called something else, like: Content, IP Address, or Target Host.) To set up the combined value, you create a single string for the fields that aren't shown individually, separating the values with spaces. The values must be included in order, leaving out the values that have separate fields available: Priority, Weight, Port, Target.

     For example, when Priority has a separate field, concatenate only the Weight, Port, and Target values: Target: 1 443 sipdir.online.lync.com

   • For TTL: Set this value to 1 hour or to the equivalent in minutes (60), seconds (3600), etc.

2. When you've finished, save the records.