I'm using Gmail and have the MX records pointing to them through my domain registrar. Is it necessary to set them up in the Linode DNS Manager as well?

If you are using your registrar for DNS hosting, no DNS settings you put in the Linode DNS Manager will matter, regardless of the record type. If you are not using your registrar for DNS hosting, you will need to set up any records, including MX records, in the Linode DNS Manager.

If you're not sure which of these you're doing, run `dig +trace yourdomainhere.com` from your Linode. That'll show you where people are looking up your records from: if the buck stops with ns#.linode.com, you're using the Linode DNS Manager. If it stops at your registrar's nameservers, you're using theirs.

- Les

OK. My domain is still on DigitalOcean (I'm in the process of moving to Linode), and the dig +trace points to their servers. However, I don't see anything that looks like an MX record in the trace. It it safe to assume that I can set up my MX records on the Linode dashboard even if they are redundant of the registrar's?

Setting them up on the Linode DNS Manager will have no effect, because nothing will ask Linode's DNS servers about your domain.