Resolved Hostname Confusion. Subdomain? Reverse DNS?

[Catia]

Plesk newbie here - running Plesk Onyx on Ubuntu 16.04. I'm setting up a vps server and I didn't understand what Plesk was asking me when it asked for a hostname the first time I logged in. So I just accepted the default which was localhost.localdomain. But it seems this causes problems with email, so I need to change the hostname.

I understand that I need to change it through tools & settings > server settings, and that the hostname must be something like server.mydomain.com, but there are some things I don't quite understand.

1) Does it matter which of the many domains hosted on the server I choose as the hostname?
2) Do I need to create a subdomain for the hostname? In other words a subdomain of server.mydomain.com?
3) The DNS for each domain on the server has a TXT entry that reads: v=spf1 +a +mx +a:localhost.localdomain -all. Do I need to change localhost.localdomain to server.mydomain.com in the DNS for this record for each domain?
4) I keep reading that I need to setup reverse DNS for the hostname - something about a PTR record? I don't understand what should go into this record or which DNS file it should go into.
5) Anything else I should know before I attempt this?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[24x7cloudservermanagement]

1) Does it matter which of the many domains hosted on the server I choose as the hostname?
The hostname should be a Fully Qualified Domain Name , so a domain name that you have registered e.g. abc.com so the hostname will be server.abc.com or vps.abc.com or box.abc.com it can be any thing

2) Do I need to create a subdomain for the hostname? In other words a subdomain of server.mydomain.com?

No , you dont need to create any subdomain in order to set the hostname for the server.

3) Yes , you will have to change it as per the hostname

4) The Reverse DNS records should be set with the hostname of the server , ask your server provider and they will set it for you.

5) Go through the Plesk documentation in order to configure the things properly.

 

[Catia]

Thank you so much!

I'm still confused about the reverse DNS though. This is an unmanaged server (well, virtual server actually) - so the provider basically gives me root access and that's it in terms of support. Are you saying that the reverse DNS needs to be set somewhere outside of the server itself?

 

[24x7cloudservermanagement]

Yes , The Reverse DNS will be added by the VPS provider. Just raise a ticket to your server provider with the hostname that you have set up and the server IP and the server provider's support team will take care of it.

 

[Catia]

OK thanks again. Actually, I was looking around on the provider dashboard, and it looks like there's a place to enter it there. I'll give it a try and see if it works or not!

Thanks so much for your help.