Using ForwardMX with Vultr is one of the original use cases that we built the service for.
In this knowledgebase article, we will go through the whole setup to use ForwardMX as your MX server and receive all your domains emails while using Vultr as DNS provider. Now let’s get started.
We assume you already have added your Domain in Vultr's DNS section.
If that is not the case, check out this guide by Vultr.
1. Go to your DNS settings
Open Vultr's DNS section and select to the domain you want add ForwardMX to.
2. Add MX Records
On the DNS panel, tick the box for any existing MX records and Delete them.
You'll need the MX Records for your ForwardMX service, which you can find under "MX Records and Setup Instructions" in your ForwardMX account.
Then click "Add Record", select MX from the first dropdown, leave the name as blank and set the Data to "mx1.forwardmx.net" with Priority 10, then click "+".
Leaving the field blank means your domain's top level in Vultr's DNS configuration.
If you add any other value here, the email would be only working on a subdomain.
For example, if you enter www instead of leaving it blank, it will be only be for emails sent to [email protected] which is probably not what you want.
Repeat that step for the second mail server record.
3. Configure the TXT record
Click on Add Record, choose type "TXT", leave the name blank (unless you're configuring email on a subdomain) and the value:
"v=spf1 include:_spf.forwardmx.net -all"
And then click "+"
4. Done
If everything is right it should look something like this:
Now wait for DNS propagation for these changes, which can be as quick as 5 minutes and as long as 48 hours, and you are ready to receive emails on your Vultr domain through ForwardMX.
