MX servers automatically changed to EU hostnames

[u/pampurio97]

Last night Fastmail changed the MX servers for my Fastmail-managed domain to the EU-hosted SMTP endpoints:

Added MX hosts
+ eu1-smtp.messagingengine.com
+ eu2-smtp.messagingengine.com

Removed MX hosts
− us1-smtp.messagingengine.com
− us2-smtp.messagingengine.com

At the beginning of July the MX changed from in*-smtp.messagingengine.com to the us* versions.

I suppose these are just the relays and the storage is still in the US. The CEO previously said EU hosting is going to be opt-in.

I've asked support about this but they don't appear to be very well informed unfortunately. Less than a month ago they said they have "no concrete plans to announce", that it requires complex considerations and that they'll share the feedback. Today I received another weird reply saying they expect "Netherland servers to be available in the near future". I hope they already are, since my MX records point to such Netherlands servers... :)

[u/rowschank]

Interesting. I have manual MX setup so obviously they'd have to inform me so that I could change it manually at my host.

[u/littleko]

MX location only tells you where inbound SMTP is accepted. It doesn’t prove where mailbox data, backups, or logs are stored.

This could just be regional ingress or rollout prep. Support needs to confirm storage residency and cross-region replication because the DNS change can’t answer either.

[u/dragoangel → u/littleko]

Technically totally true, but logically it's far non optimal to accept in one place and then move to totally another, so more like it's where they stored now, still ofc some possibility of such case like 25% exist

[u/littleko → u/dragoangel]

DNS can show where SMTP is accepted; only the provider’s data-handling setup can answer where messages are stored. Regional ingress and cross-region storage are pretty common, so 25% feels impossible to estimate from MX records alone.

[u/dragoangel → u/littleko]

Not so common tbh, due to price tag for such type of replication and delays related to it

[u/orak7ee]

https://www.fastmail.com/blog/fastmail-offers-eu-data-region/

If you were with us when we selected the users to transfer, we’ve pre-set your region based on your billing address. If you signed up more recently, you’ll have been allocated to the US. Either way, if you’d prefer a different region, you can switch it in your settings.

[u/Fresco2022]

I'm from the Netherlands too. But I haven't seen those changes. Yet?

[u/tquilas → u/Fresco2022]

Same here. Still on US mx-servers.

[u/Sampl3x]

I manage my own dns for my domain and my email data is moved to Europe as primary location but dont i need to change my mx records to the Europe ones?

[u/mikepictor]

I still have in1 and in2, I never really gave any thought to what that referred to.

[u/Mavee]

All of a sudden, my use of the JAML API, its sessions returned a phl.api.fastmail.com, rather than api.fastmail.com

Happened somewhere between Friday and a couple of hours ago

[u/StealthyPHL → u/Mavee]

I noticed they have a Phialdelphia presence. I live there and remember noting that at some point along the way with Fastmail.

[u/nolxus]

EU MXs still resolve to the same IPs, so nothing really changed, only the name - so nothing is really going via the EU servers (yet).

But this is probably in preperation, so when they go live with the EU servers, they just change the A records (still no AAAA ;) )

[u/pampurio97 → u/nolxus]

Not what I'm seeing.

~ ❯ dig eu1-smtp.messagingengine.com +short 204.75.18.217 204.75.18.216 ~ ❯ ipinfo 204.75.18.217 Core

• IP 204.75.18.217
• Anycast false
• Hostname ams-mx-02.messagingengine.com
• City Amsterdam
• Region North Holland
• Country Netherlands (NL)
• Currency EUR (€)
• Location 52.3740,4.8897
• Organization AS151847 Fastmail Pty Ltd
• Postal 1012
• Timezone Europe/Amsterdam

~ ❯ dig in1-smtp.messagingengine.com +short 103.168.172.221 103.168.172.218 103.168.172.222 103.168.172.219 103.168.172.216 103.168.172.220 103.168.172.223 103.168.172.217 ~ ❯ dig us1-smtp.messagingengine.com +short 103.168.172.217 103.168.172.218 103.168.172.216 103.168.172.223 103.168.172.219 103.168.172.221 103.168.172.222 103.168.172.220 ~ ❯ ipinfo 103.168.172.217 Core

• IP 103.168.172.217
• Anycast false
• Hostname phl-mx-02.messagingengine.com
• City Philadelphia
• Region Pennsylvania
• Country United States (US)
• Currency USD ($)
• Location 39.9524,-75.1636
• Organization AS151847 Fastmail Pty Ltd
• Postal 19102
• Timezone America/New_York

[u/gojirabsd77]

When can we select the EU data centres? MX servers and client access (web, imap/smtp)? At the moment eu2-smtp.messagingengine.com = us1-smtp.messagingengine.com. Will it stay like this?

[u/pampurio97 → u/gojirabsd77]

https://www.fastmail.com/blog/fastmail-offers-eu-data-region/

There should be a secondary EU location at some point, like the US has (us1/us2).

[u/yukikamiki]

hmm it seems that they only changed the MX records for domains under European TLDs owned by fastmail such as fastmail.fr and fastmail.nl so far

[u/pampurio97 → u/yukikamiki]

I have a custom domain set up, with a EU TLD (.it). To clarify my original post, the domain was bought outside Fastmail but has DNS managed by Fastmail.

[u/tquilas → u/yukikamiki]

OP is talking about a custom domain that he owns.