What is the purpose of MX records in the DNS system and what is their role in email configuration?

MX records (Mail Exchange) in the DNS system specify which mail servers accept email for a domain. They point to the servers that handle incoming mail.

Role of MX records in email setup:

• Allow sending servers to determine where to deliver emails for a specific domain.
• Each MX record has a priority (numeric value) indicating the order of delivery attempts — the lower the number, the higher the priority.
• If the server with the highest priority is unavailable, email will be routed to the server with the next lowest priority.

Example of an MX record:

example.com.  IN  MX  10 mail1.example.com.
example.com.  IN  MX  20 mail2.example.com.

Here, mail1.example.com will be the primary mail server, and mail2.example.com will be the backup.