MDaemon ActiveSync: How to setup the Auto-Discover Service and create SRV/CNAME records for the service

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IMPORTANT NOTE: We are aware of some outstanding problems Auto-Discover which we are currently working with the US developers on so the steps below may encounter some issues at present

MDaemon includes support for Auto-Discover, which simplifies the configuration of ActiveSync accounts in email clients that support the protocol. The Auto-Discovery service is enabled in MDaemon by default.

In most cases, the email address and password are all that’s required to configure accounts.

Notes:

  • Certain clients may behave differently when querying Auto-Discover records or may not correctly support Auto-Discover at all.
  • The Auto-Discover service requires Webmail to have HTTPS enabled.
  • A valid (non self-signed) SSL certificate should be used.
  • The SSL certificate must also have an alternative host name defined in the form autodiscover.domain.com.

You can use Let’s Encrypt to generate a root trusted certificate and then also include an alternative host name in its setup for the autodiscover.domain.com entry. See this article for details regarding the Lets Encrypt setup process in MDaemon.

1. Add the following Service (SRV) records to the public DNS (replace domain.com with the MDaemon domain):

Domain: domain.com
Service: _airsync
Protocol: _tcp
Priority: 0
Weight: 0
Port Number: 443
Host/Target: autodiscover.domain.com

Domain: domain.com
Service: _autodiscover
Protocol: _tcp
Priority: 0
Weight: 0
Port Number: 443
Host/Target: autodiscover.domain.com

2. Add a new A record or CNAME to the public DNS. If using an A record, it is required that the record is autodiscover.domain.com and it points to public IP address of the server that MDaemon is installed on. If using a CNAME, it is required that the record is autodiscover.domain.com and it points to the host name of the MDaemon server (typically in the form mail.domain.com).

Once the DNS records have propagated, verify that you can access the Auto-Discovery Service for MDaemon. You can do this by browsing to the following address:

https://AutoDiscover.domain.com/AutoDiscover/AutoDiscover.xml

Client Setup Process:

1. The end-user typically enters their e-mail address and password on their email client.

The client uses the domain information in the user’s e-mail address (domain.com), and tries to locate the Auto-Discovery service by sending an Auto-Discovery command request to the following predefined URLs:

https://domain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
https://autodiscover.domain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
https://autodiscover.domain.com/mddp

2. If the Auto-Discover is successful, then the account setup on the device should be automatic and no further server or host name details need to be entered.

Logging:

MDaemon logs Auto-Discover attempts in its AutoDiscover-YYYY-MM-DD.log and MDPP-YYYY-MM-DD.log files which can be found in the \MDaemon\Logs folder.