How To Create an Autodiscover Record for Exchange Server 2013/2010

Shuvro

First, an Autodiscover record is created in DNS to help mail clients connect to users to their respective mailboxes, as simple as that. Elaboration follows:

Why do you need it? All you have to do is create an Autodiscover record. Why? An Autodiscover record makes configuring your Exchange account much easier—with only your email address and password. It also gives you access to other features that are exclusive to Exchange. Autodiscover also enables Outlook to automatically configure/reconfigure your profile when Exchange Server administrators perform certain modifications. For example, the mailbox might be assigned to a new database or internal server. Outlook will request the updated information via the Autodiscover service and will be able to operate normally again.

Through the Autodiscover service, Outlook finds a new connection point made up of the user’s mailbox GUID + @ + the domain portion of the user’s primary SMTP address. The Autodiscover service returns the following information to the client:

  • The user’s display name
  • Separate connection settings for internal and external connectivity
  • The location of the user’s Mailbox server
  • The URLs for various Outlook features that govern functionality such as free/busy information, Unified Messaging, and the offline address book
  • Outlook Anywhere server settings
  • Web-based offline address book (OAB)
  • Viewing free/busy times in Outlook calendars
  • Unified messaging
  • Out-of-office assistant
  • Folder sharing with the sharing invitation

Moreover, When you install a Client Access server in Exchange 2013, a default virtual directory named Autodiscover is created under the default website in Internet Information Services (IIS). This virtual directory handles Autodiscover service requests from Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, and Outlook 2013 clients and supported mobile phones under the following circumstances:

  • When a user account is configured or updated
  • When an Outlook client periodically checks for changes to the Exchange Web Services URLs
  • When underlying network connection changes occur in your Exchange messaging environment

Additionally when connecting your Outlook client to Microsoft Exchange for the first time it will setup Outlook client for you. An A record or CName is created called Autodiscover, this points to the IP address of your CAS server (Exchange 2007, 2010 and 2013). If you are authenticated then the mail client will then be directed by the CAS server to the Appropriate Mailbox server your mailbox is hosted on. The Autodiscover service must be deployed and configured correctly for clients to automatically connect to certain features in Exchange 2013. Fortunately, doing this is very easy.

Simple guideline to Create an Autodiscover Record follows:

  1. Log on to your internal DNS server or domain controller.
  2. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.
  3. Click to expand<yourservername>.
  4. Click to expand Forward Lookup Zones.
  5. Select the domain for which you would like to create an Autodiscover record.
  6. Right-click the domain name and select New Alias (CNAME)….
  7. In the Alias Name field, Type autodiscover.domainname
  8. If your Exchange server name is CAS.EMAIL1.MOBS-BD.ORG enter:

 Host name

Points to 
 autodiscover.<domainname> XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

If your Exchange server name is CAS.EMAIL2.MOBS-BD.ORG enter:

 Host name

 Points to
 autodiscover.<domainname> XXX.XXX.XXX.XXY

If your Exchange server name is CAS.EMAIL3.MOBS-BD.ORG enter:

 Host name

 Points to
 autodiscover.<domainname> XXX.XXX.XXX.XXZ
  1. Type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the target host (Exchange CAS Server) which points to the Exchange Server IP. Click OK.

And you are done!

Note: Due to the distributed nature of DNS, the record you just created may take up to 24 to 48 hours to propagate.

More info @ TechNet: