DMARC Configuration Settings & Setup

Understand your DMARC configuration settings and setup DMARC record delegation to enable management through Sendmarc

Steps to follow:

1. Navigate to Domains in the left navigation bar.
   
   
   
2. Click on the domain you wish to configure and then click Edit. Or click the Pencil Icon of the domain you wish to edit.
   
3. Click on DMARC Settings to confirm the correct settings have been imported/applied and make necessary adjustments where needed.
   
4. Once you're happy with your settings expand Your DNS Configuration section to reveal the DNS record required to enable DMARC management for your domain. You'll also see a RAW record displayed; this is the hosted record that Sendmarc compiles based on the settings you have set in the platform.
   
    

   The DNS Configuration section will contain:
   • DNS Record - This is the new DNS record to enable delegation.
   • Verification Status - Indicates the various states of verification with the date and time of that the last validation occurred.
   • Raw DMARC Record - Displays the raw DMARC record that contains the policy and settings as imported and modified by you. Do NOT use this record, follow the setup instructions to enable delegation. 
5. Now add the CNAME record to your DNS to enable delegation. The process of updating your DNS may differ depending on your hosting provider. Visit the Service Provider Section for more information.
6. Click Verify to validate your newly added DNS record. It may take some time for the record to reflect, but Sendmarc will continue to attempt verification in the background.
7. Once your setup has been fully verified you've successfully delegated the management of your DMARC record to the Sendmarc platform. This will be indicated by a green tick. Sendmarc will start collecting your domain's reports to help you make informed decisions.

Setup a Subdomain

When adding or configuring a subdomain, Sendmarc will check for a verified parent domain within the Account. You have the option to override the DMARC policy with a different configuration or not. By choosing not to override it, the DMARC policy from the parent domain will apply.

When enabled, it will create a new DNS record specifically for the subdomain. Once verified, you can only disable the subdomain override by removing the DNS configuration from the subdomain. Only unverified subdomain parent overrides can be disabled.

You can also configure the subdomain policy directly on the parent domain's DMARC settings, check the subdomain policy settings under DMARC Settings.

DMARC Configuration Settings

Understand the various settings available for your DMARC record, these settings will only take affect if DNS delegation has been implemented and verified. Follow the setup instructions above.

Policy Settings

 

DMARC Policy

Requests receiving servers to allow, quarantine or reject email that fail DMARC verification. You can set this policy to none, quarantine, or reject for unauthenticated messages.

• None - Allows unauthenticated message
• Quarantine
• Reject

 

Subdomain Policy

Requests receiving servers to treat emails from subdomains differently to emails from the main domain. This policy indicates how you would like receiving servers to treat emails failing from all subdomains. If this is not set, your subdomains will inherit the parent domains' DMARC policy.

• None - Allows unauthenticated message
• Quarantine
• Reject

 

Policy Percentage

This is the percentage of messages from the domain's mail stream to which the DMARC policy should apply to randomly selected emails.

• 0-100%

Aggregate Report Settings

 

Report Interval

Set the interval at which you request aggregate feedback to be sent. Although the interval is requested a reporting server may not adhere to this request.

• Once a Day
• Every 6 Hours
• Every 4 Hours
• Every 2 Hours
• Every Hour

Additional Report Recipients

Additional email addresses to which you would like aggregate feedback to be sent. Sendmarc will set your unique reporting email address by default to ensure reports are received by the platform.

Failure Report Settings

 

Failure Reports Processing

You can choose how you'd like to handle forensic report data. Enabling process will allow Sendmarc to process and display the report data and contents. If you are concerned about the privacy of the data contained in these reports, you can choose to process these reports yourself or disable them altogether.

• Enabled
• Specified Recipients
• Disabled

When Failure Report Processing is enabled, you'll be able to add Additional Report Recipients and set Failure Report Options to define when a forensic report should be sent.

Failure Reporting Options:

• SPF or DKIM Fail and Don't Align
• SPF and DKIM Fail and Don't Align
• DKIM fails regardless of alignment
• SPF fails regardless of alignment

Alignment Settings

 

DKIM Alignment Mode

Choose whether you would like strict or relaxed DKIM alignment.

• Relaxed - In relaxed mode allows for sub-domains to align.
• Strict - In strict mode the domain used for signing must be the same as the “From” domain.

SPF Alignment Mode

Choose whether you would like strict or relaxed SPF alignment.

• Relaxed - In relaxed mode allows for sub-domains to align.
• Strict - In strict mode the domain used in the “MailFrom” must match the domain in the “From” field exactly.

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