Initial Setup (Setup Assistant)

The Setup Assistant guides you through the complete initial setup of your Conbool system after creating a tenant. It ensures that all necessary configuration steps are performed in the correct order so that your email traffic is reliably routed through Conbool.

You can find the assistant under Home → Setup (path: /home/[account]/setup). The assistant is divided into four sequential steps: Registration, Verification, Mail Server, and Completion.

Prerequisites

Before starting the Setup Assistant, make sure the following requirements are met:

1. Tenant created – A Conbool tenant must already be set up. If not yet done, follow the guide: Create Tenant.
2. Access to your DNS management – You need access to your domain's DNS provider to create and modify TXT and MX records.
3. Exchange Online administrator rights (for automatic setup) – For automatic connector and transport rule setup, you need admin access to Microsoft 365 (Entra Admin Consent).
4. Active membership – A valid Conbool membership is required.

Step 1: Registration

In the first step, you enter your email domain (e.g., yourcompany.com) in the Setup Assistant and confirm the entry. The domain is saved for the subsequent steps.

Step 2: Verification

In the second step, all required DNS records are displayed. You must add them at your DNS provider and then start the verification.

Displayed DNS Records

The assistant displays the following four records, each of which is checked individually:

Verification Record (TXT)

SPF Record (TXT)

Important: Only one SPF record may exist per domain. Always add include:mail.conbool.com to your existing record.

DKIM Record (TXT)

MX Record

The MX record with the lowest priority must point to mail.conbool.com. More details can be found under MX Record.

Start Verification

After all records have been set, click Start Validation. Conbool checks each record individually (TXT, SPF, DKIM, MX) and displays the status with color coding (green = successful, red = failed). You can only proceed to the next step once all four checks have passed.

Depending on the DNS provider, propagation can take up to 24 hours. In most cases, however, the records are available within a few minutes.

Detailed information can be found under Domain Registration.

Step 3: Mail Server

After successful verification, you configure the connection between your mail server and Conbool. This step consists of two parts: setup and target server.

Choose Setup Mode

The assistant offers two modes:

• Automatic via Exchange Online (recommended) – Conbool connects to your Microsoft 365 tenant via Microsoft Entra Admin Consent and automatically creates connectors and transport rules. The assistant guides you through authorization, scope selection (all senders, selected senders, or a group), and deployment.
• Manual configuration – For custom setups or other mail servers. You set up connectors and transport rules yourself and confirm completion via a checkbox. A complete guide can be found under Configure Mail Server.

Define Target Server

Regardless of the chosen mode, you must specify the internal mail server (relay host) to which Conbool forwards processed emails. Enter an FQDN or IP address (e.g., yourcompany-com.mail.protection.outlook.com).

With automatic Exchange setup, the relay host is pre-filled automatically. Click Test Connection to verify SMTP reachability. You can only proceed to the next step after a successful test.

Step 4: Completion

In the final step, the assistant displays a summary of all settings:

• Domain and verification status
• DNS records – Status of individual checks (TXT, SPF, MX, DKIM)
• Relay host – The configured target server
• MX records – The currently set MX records of your domain

Review the information and click Finish to save the configuration. If a check fails, you can return to the corresponding step and correct the setting.

After Setup

Once the setup is complete, your tenant is fully configured. Your email traffic is now routed through Conbool. You can now activate and configure the following features:

• SecureMail – Encryption and signing of outbound emails
• MailGuard – Spam and virus protection for inbound emails
• Disclaimer – Automatic email signatures and disclaimers

Detailed information on all configuration options can be found in the Configuration section.