What is autodiscover? Does it require public IP added in external DNS records?

thesb 1 Reputation point
2021-11-12T15:14:58.64+00:00

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand the setup of exchange in my company and would really appreciate feedback on this.

In public network, nslookup
autodiscover.company.com return public IP 10.9.9.10
exchange.company.com return public IP 10.9.9.10
mail.company.com return public IP 10.9.9.80

In internal network, nslookup
autodiscover.company.com return internal IP 10.10.10.10
exchange.company.com return internal IP 10.10.10.10
mail.company.com does not return IP

When we setup mobile email, we enter public IP 10.9.9.80 and it setup successfully. so do we still need to maintain the external DNS records for autodiscover? since our mobile email can be setup with the mail.company.com public IP? plus we only allow mobile email access and public access via OWA is not allowed.

Appreciate any feedback for this.

Thank you so much!

Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server: A family of Microsoft client/server messaging and collaboration software.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
7,368 questions

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Andy David - MVP 142.3K Reputation points MVP
    2021-11-12T15:18:19.97+00:00

    You need that external autodiscover record yes if you want the ability for external clients to automatically setup and configure their mail profiles for all clients that can use it.

    OWA doesnt use autodiscover.

    If however , you are ok with users entering the mail.company.com IP manually, you dont absolutely need the autodiscover record.

    Note, there is no need for a separate IP.

    Use a CNAME instead that points to the mail.company.com A record.

    Why the exchange.company.com IP address?

    0 comments
  2. Philippe Levesque 5,691 Reputation points MVP
    2021-11-12T16:06:27.983+00:00

    I would configure the Autodiscover for long term goal as newer version of Outlook rely heavily on it to configure the mail account.

    It's a feature that allow Outlook to discover to where to talk to, to configure the email account.

    It's mostly for Outlook 2016 and 2019, where Outlook will by default check the autodiscover settings, if it dont find it, will fail.

    Outlook 2016 requires AutoDiscover.

    Outlook 2016 retrieves Exchange connectivity settings directly from AutoDiscover instead of the registry, making profiles more reliable, but that also makes AutoDiscover a required feature.

    In big if you want a user outside your business, like on a laptop on the road, to be able to configure and use his account, then yes setup it.

    If no device except mobile device, then it's your choice

    Thanks

    0 comments