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How to authenticate your sending domain with Transactional Email

This page shows you how to manually configure your sending domain's DNS records to authenticate the domain and start sending transactional emails.

Tip

You can set up autoconfiguration for your TEM domain.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

  1. Click Transactional Email in the Domains & Web Hosting section of the console side menu. The Transactional Email overview page displays.
  2. Click the name of the email domain you want to authenticate. The domain overview page displays. You can see the status of the DNS records.
  3. Click the DNS records tab.

On this tab, you can configure:

  • SPF record – Authorizes specific mail servers to send emails on behalf of your domain, preventing unauthorized use.
  • DKIM record – Adds a digital signature to verify email integrity and confirms it was sent from your domain.
  • DMARC record – Defines how receiving servers should handle authentication failures and enables reporting for your domain.
  • MX record – Directs incoming emails to your mail server but is not involved in sending or authenticating outgoing emails.
Important

Keep in mind that:

  • The verification of your domain might take up to 48 hours.
  • Scaleway performs regular validity checks on your domain that can impact its validity.

How to configure SPF records

  1. Scroll to the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records section.

  2. Copy the value that applies to your case to add an SPF record.

    Important
    • If you have no SPF record on this domain, copy the following value: v=spf1 include:_spf.tem.scaleway.com -all
    • If you already have configured an SPF record, copy the following value: include:_spf.tem.scaleway.com

  3. Add a TXT record type in the same zone as your Transactional Email's domain, on your DNS zone.

  4. Paste the value you have copied in the Value section.

  5. Save your changes.

How to configure DKIM records

  1. Scroll to the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records section.
  2. Copy the value that applies to your case to add an DKIM record.
  3. Add a TXT record type in the same zone as your Transactional Email's domain, on your DNS zone.
  4. Copy the name that displays in the console and past it in the Name field.
  5. Copy the value that displays in the console and paste it in the Value section.
  6. Save your changes.

How to configure DMARC records

  1. Add a TXT record type in the same zone as your Transactional Email's domain, on your DNS zone.

  2. Enter _dmarc in the Name field, followed by the domain name. For example, if your domain is called my-domain.com, you should have _dmarc.my-domain.com. in the Name field.

  3. Enter your desired tags and their values in the Value section. Make sure that you add the mandatory v and p tags, and that you separate tags from each other with semi-colons. Find out about DMARC configuration in our dedicated documentation. Your Value field should look similar to the following:

    v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:your@email.com
    Important

    It is possible to configure several DMARC records for one domain, but they must have different names to be valid. For example, the _dmarc.mydomain.com and _dmarc.tem.mydomain.com DMARC records are valid.

  4. Confirm the changes and add the DMARC record.

    Tip

    If you have a domain at Scaleway Domains and DNS, you can access your account from the Scaleway console, click Domains and DNS > Your domain > DNS Zones, then add a record in the same zone as your Transactional Email's domain.

How to configure MX records

Important

We recommend you use your own MX server if you have one. If you do not have an MX server, we recommend you use Scaleway's blackhole MX, as it allows you to avoid email rejection. However, this also means that the emails sent back to the Scaleway blackhole MX will be lost and unrecoverable.

  1. Add an MX record type in the root zone of your domain on your DNS zone.
  2. Enter a name of your choice in the Name field.
  3. Set 10 as a priority for your MX record.
    Note

    Priority indicates the order in which your mail servers should be tried by a mail server that is attempting to deliver emails.

  4. Enter the name of your MX followed by a trailing dot in the Hostname field.
  5. Save your changes.

How to add Scaleway's MX record

Important
  • Scaleway provides its own MX server to improve email deliverability.
    However, Scaleway's MX server is a blackhole. This means that any email sent back to it will be lost with no possibility of recovery.
  • If you have no MX server, we recommend you use Scaleway's blackhole MX to avoid getting your emails rejected.
  1. Add an MX record type in the root zone of your domain on your DNS zone.
  2. Enter a name of your choice in the Name field.
  3. Set 10 as a priority for your MX record.
    Note

    Priority indicates the order in which your mail servers should be tried by a mail server that is attempting to deliver emails.

  4. Enter blackhole.tem.scaleway.com. in the Hostname field. Make sure you add the trailing dot at the end of the value.
  5. Save your changes.
See Also
How to autoconfigure a Scaleway domain with Transactional EmailHow to set up BIMI for transactional emails
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