If you would like to use Redtail's Email Archiving, but for whatever reason cannot have Redtail host your email, we can still setup an "archive" mailbox.* There are a few steps to set this in motion:
Step 1. You would need to ensure that you have a domain that is currently not being used for email purposes. If you do not, you would need to purchase a domain different from the one you are currently using for your primary email addresses. It doesn't matter what the domain name is as no one sending messages to you will ever see it. We do not provide domain names so you would need to purchase this from a domain name seller such as godaddy.com or create a sub domain within a domain you already own. If you utilize a sub domain just verify you have the ability within your domain registrar to set an independent mx record on that subdomain. Note: we don't recommend purchasing a domain or creating a sub domain from Microsoft directly, as they will not allow you to edit MX records to point anywhere other than Office 365.
Why does the archive address need to be on a different domain or sub domain?
The archive established is essentially an email address that has no outbound functionality. It is setup to receive copies of emails journaled to it for the sole purpose of linking them to your contact records. Due to it being a hosted email address, it must be on a separate domain or a sub domain with its own MX records, as each domain can only have MX records that point to one mail service at a time. Since your email is hosted elsewhere, the MX record for your email domain must be pointed to your host’s MX record. In short, you cannot have email addresses on the same domain hosted by two different providers.
What is a sub domain?
It is simply a subdivision of your primary domain. A subdomain is a prefix added to a domain name to separate a section of your domain that can be directed to different places than your primary domain. For example, we can take our primary domain, redtailtechnology.com, where we have the email address support@redtailtechnology.com that we use to send/receive emails across the internet and add the sub domain archive.redtailtechnology.com with DNS records pointing to an alternate mail service. This wont affect anyone sending and receiving with support@redtailtechnology.com but we would be able to utilize that sub domain for an alternate mail service where that address might look something like emailarchive@archive.redtailtechnology.com.
Step 2. Complete the Redtail Email Archive Setup Form. The form can be located at the bottom of this post.
Step 3. Submit the completed setup form via the link contained within it. (Note: You must first save the form to your computer prior to attempting to upload)
Once Redtail receives the completed setup form, your request will be queued up for processing in the order in which it was received. Standard turnaround time on email setup requests is 2-3 business days (subject to change based upon volume).
After receiving your email setup form, Redtail will set up one archive mailbox under this new domain, an address along the lines of emailarchive@yourdomainchoice-archive.com. Once your email archive setup with Redtail has been completed, you will receive an email notification (to the Contact Email Address you provided on your setup form) outlining your next steps to finish the process. Those next steps will be to
Step 1. Contact the company where your domain name is registered and have them: Change the MX Record to mail1.redtailtechnology.com. Make sure all other MX records are removed.
Step 2. Contact your email administrators or provider for the email domain you want to be captured within the archive to request standard journaling of your incoming and outgoing email to Redtail. You will provide them with the address of emailarchive@ the domain you provided to us.
After you have verified that the journaling has been established, the correspondence displaying within the Email History can take up to 72 hours to be enabled as this is completed in a separate step after the setup has been completed.
There are a couple of items to be aware of prior to proceeding with this process:
- You must check with your current email provider before pursuing this type of setup, as not all email providers offer journaling.
- The archive address established as a result of this request is for storage purposes only. A password will not be provided for your archive address, as it will be inaccessible to users.
- The cost of Redtail’s Email Archiving Service is only $8 per month per mailbox set to journal into the archive that we will be hosting. Example: If you have 4 mailboxes with your office that will journal over for archiving, the cost will be $32 per month.
Compliance Information:
Redtail’s Email Archival service is pursuant to the SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4 and can be confirmed with a request to the Redtail Compliance team. Please direct specific compliance concerns to your Compliance Department to ensure proper setup with your email host and utilization of the services. A failure on the part of your email host to forward messages to Redtail’s Archival service, for instance, could trigger compliance concerns that would not fall under Redtail's responsibility but should instead be addressed by your Compliance Department, your in-house IT department, and/or your email hosting provider.
Additional Information:
If you would like additional information on how the archiving works, click here.
* If your email is hosted through GoDaddy and you are not utilizing their Office 365 integration, you will be unable to journal your email to a third party archive with Redtail. Note that this is a limitation on the GoDaddy hosted email servers rather than a restriction imposed by Redtail.
Email Archive Setup Form:
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