DigitalOcean

How to add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

How to add SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

1- Login into your DigitalOcean account.

2- Head to your DNS zone, and click on your domain.

3- Head to the TXT tab as in the screenshot below.

4- From the TXT tab and make sure to add your SPF Record Hostname and Value.

For example:

In this case, we whitelisted Zoho’s SPF in our DNS zone.

Record Type	Hostname	Value
TXT Record	@	v=spf1 include:zoho.com ~all

5- Additionally, if you’re using sources that only have an IP address you can add the IPs in the same current SPF record.

 

Record Type	Hostname	Value
TXT Record	@	v=spf1 ip4:169.148.146.23/32 include:zoho.com ~all

6- Click “Create Record” to finish your DigitalOcean SPF setup.

Note: Having multiple SPF Records for a single root domain is a bad practice and results in authentication failure. If you use multiple sources within your organization, you must have them whitelisted in a single SPF Record.

How to add DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail)

It’s the same process for DKIM as well, but we will do some changes for DKIM.

Note: Before diving into steps on how to add DKIM to your DigitalOcean, it is important to understand that each provider has their own Private/Public Keys that they provide to their customers. In this article, we are focusing on Zoho Mail. We’ve generated the DKIM Public signature from the Zoho Mail portal, and in the next steps, we are going to implement it in our DNS (DigitalOcean).

1- Try to create a new TXT record type for your DKIM setup.

2- Make sure to add your DKIM Record Hostname and Value.

Record Type	Hostname	Value
TXT Record	zmail._domainkey	v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC+BeYApQiIf2makHXZzj/vmRNO kmQXqVu4aKYcNqj5ANGbJNYGROfo63TTlu2KUWootMQ1nHiiKfFODPO6LjUwn3zp mRv7ONmcm40QOysLrv5cGk+l9letBM7DnVqrvHsMOMHVv1q87fy1n4DuqDM/cVKM qaAExyY+yAKZfUfuRQIDAQAB

The value part contains the public DKIM signature that was generated from the Zoho Mail portal.

3- Click “Create Record” to finish your DigitalOcean DKIM setup.

How to add DMARC (Domain Message Authentication Reporting Conformance)

Now from the same place, we can add the DMARC as well.

There are 2 ways to generate DMARC Record:

1. When you directly register on EasyDMARC, our system automatically provides you a DMARC Record upon adding your domain
2. You can also use EasyDMARC’s DMARC Record Generator tool to get a DMARC Record

After generating DMARC Record, you need to update it in your DigitalOcean.

From the same TXT tab make sure to add your DMARC Record Hostname and Data.

Record Type	Hostname	Value
TXT Record	_dmarc	v=DMARC1;p=none;rua=mailto:29506ecf8e@rua.easydmarc.us;ruf=mailto:29506ecf8e@ruf.easydmarc.us;fo=1;

Important Note:

It’s always recommended to first start your DMARC Journey in Monitoring mode (p=none). That will help you gather reports, identify & authenticate legitimate email servers used in your organization, and later on advance your Policy to higher levels such as Quarantine or Reject.

After updating, click “Create Record” to finish your DigitalOcean DMARC setup.