Hi Paul,

 

The Domain Location setting is actually used for routing incoming messages. (In SmarterMail 16.x, the setting name was changed to 'Inbound Message Delivery' to accurately reflect this.) We don't recommend using that setting as a workaround to creating a gateway.

 

In SmarterMail 16.x, we added the ability to specify an outgoing gateway per domain. To accomplish something similar in 15.x, you'll need to utilize message and gateway prioritization. In the domain's configuration settings on the Priority tab, you can change the priority for the various types of messages. Then set the gateway's Priority Range to match that domain's values. Here's more information about utilizing Outgoing Gateway Prioritization in SmarterMail 15.x. Please let me know if you have any follow up questions or concerns.

Thanks! Yes, the instructions in Help are not at all clear, nor is the terminology used in v15. I will take a look at that shortly.
 

OK took a look - but I'm using more than one 3rd party (Non-SM) cloud-based gateway host. How would one do that with SM v15?

I am confused. For what purpose, then, is the External Host Address? If this is an incoming setting, and it is set, will the domain ONLY receive email from this host?

 

And I'm confused because you allow split domains, per domain, yet there is no way to set a specific outgoing host for that domain.

Hi Paul,

The Domain Location setting allows you to specify the domain location for incoming email delivery. You can specify whether the domain is hosted locally or partially/entirely on an external server. If you select External (Use host address), messages will be delivered to the specified host address rather than the SmarterMail server. The host address can either be entered as an IP address or the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), such as mail.yourdomain.com.  

"The Domain Location setting allows you to specify the domain location for incoming email delivery. You can specify whether the domain is hosted locally or partially/entirely on an external server. If you select External (Use host address), messages will be delivered to the specified host address rather than the SmarterMail server." 

Are you saying that, if an external host address is specified, SmarterMail acts as the authoritative server for the entire domain, and delivers mail to that host? And if the "deliver locally..." box is checked, then email is delivered locally to users on that domain that exist on the SmarterMail server? And in that case, all email destined for addresses NOT on the domain is sent "normally" or through an outgoing gateway, if one is specified?

The wording in the menus makes it seem as if the external server is the authoritative server for the domain, and SM is downstream of that.

Please try and set me straight. I'm trying to understand the mail flow here. 

Thanks!

Another comment:  

I have set up a split domain configuration between SM v15 and Office 365. I set the external host to the same thing as the outbound gateway, checked "delivery locally..." and, after getting the settings right in Office 365, it seems to be working fine. Still not really sure if the external host setting actually does anything; but the outbound gateway setting is absolutely required for this to work - in other words, it seems to be the outbound gateway setting that does the work of sending email through to Office 365.

Office 365 (IP addresses at Microsoft EOP) is the authoritative server for the domain; using DNS records set up at my registrar (enom).

Hi Paul,

As far as I understand, that is correct.

OK, thanks!

I have it setup with O365 as the authoritative server; this works fine. 

BUT as I stated elsewhere, the outgoing IP (IPv4) address used is the lowest IP address configured on my Windows 2012 R2 server, ignoring all other IP addresses for outgoing purposes. And the O365 address [domain-com].mail.protection.outlook.com is set as the Outgoing Gateway in SM. I used this same address as the External Host Address, but I'm not sure if that does anything in this configuration. Not setting the Outgoing Gateway causes things not to work.

And "Deliver locally if user exists" is enabled.

Hi Paul,

I apologize for the confusion... I was wrong. "Are you saying that, if an external host address is specified, SmarterMail acts as the authoritative server for the entire domain, and delivers mail to that host?"  SmarterMail does NOT act as the authoritative server when the domain is marked as external. If a domain is marked as external and "Deliver locally is user exists" is enabled, any email coming into the SmarterMail server will try to deliver locally.  If that user does not exist, it will forward onto the MX record or the host IP address.

Hi Paul,

I apologize for the confusion... I was wrong. "Are you saying that, if an external host address is specified, SmarterMail acts as the authoritative server for the entire domain, and delivers mail to that host?"  SmarterMail does NOT act as the authoritative server when the domain is marked as external. If a domain is marked as external and "Deliver locally is user exists" is enabled, any email coming into the SmarterMail server will try to deliver locally.  If that user does not exist, it will forward onto the MX record or the host IP address. 

That's all fine, and it's working as I want it to. However, the External Host Address setting doesn't appear to do anything; email does not seem to flow out from SmarterMail to the external host - in this case Microsoft EOP - if that external host is not set as an Outgoing Gateway.