Why do I receive the error "DNS records are not set up correctly"?

Question

I am trying to allow Zendesk to send email on behalf of my domain, but I receive the error DNS records are not set up correctly when verifying my DNS records. Why is this?

Answer

The error DNS records are not set up correctly appears when Zendesk is unable to verify your DNS records. This is often caused by DNS records that are either unpublished or published incorrectly. This article outlines how to determine possible issues when your DNS records do not validate and information on how to resolve it.

To ensure your DNS records are correctly configured and that Zendesk is allowed to send on your behalf, the below must be true:

• You must add four CNAME (Canonical Name) records to your DNS server that give Zendesk domain-level email authorization
• You must add a TXT record (a domain verification record) to your DNS server that contains your account's unique domain verification value. 
• The support address is present as an external support address
• The records were published for longer than the specified TTL (time to live) and successfully propagated

Examining your DNS records

If the above is true, but you are still not able to verify your DNS records, manually inspect your DNS records for errors using a DNS lookup tool. A popular tool is MxToolBox. Use the following lookup tools to review your CNAME and TXT records respectively:

• CNAME Lookup
• TXT Lookup

If your records do not appear using the lookup tools above, then the records are not properly configured.

Note: The links provided here contain examples of how to correctly lookup your DNS records. Update the example lookup and replace the yourdomain value with your actual domain name.

Common issues configuring DNS records

One of the most common issues that occur when configuring DNS records is that the DNS server provider automatically appends your domain to the Name / Host / Domain values when publishing a record. This means that if you add a Name / Host / Domain value such as:

 zendesk1.yourdomain.com

Your DNS server provider automatically publishes that record as:

zendesk1.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com  

To avoid this, ensure that you add only zendesk1 to the Name/ Host / Domain value when creating your DNS record.

If you are unable to see any of the four CNAME records, or your TXT record using MxToolBox, reach out to your domain registrar (or DNS server provider) for further assistance, as they are the only ones able to resolve any propagation issues. 

If you're having issues validating your SPF record, see the article: Why doesn't my SPF record validate?