Mail service on the OS X Server 4.0 works only locally

kedmans13, Did you get yours working. Mine is working, but I had to rebuild the server 2 times, (3 total setups) I did resolve this issue, but I am going to have to rack my brain to remember what I did. If you are still having an issue I will.

Apple's reachability test does not work. As toop68 said, the service is available, external clients can read mail.

In the Server main screen on the 'Access' tab, by default Mail is not shown (on my server, anyway, which started out on OS X Lion and has successfully upgraded to Yosemite).

To enable external access so clients can send mail, add Mail on the 'Access' tab. If 'All networks' and 'All Users' are both set, the 'OK' button is greyed out.

Select 'Only some users' and add the mail user accounts.

Note that some of the ports shown on the Access screen may need to be opened on your router; you only need to open the ones you use, e.g 25 SMTP and 993 IMAPS.

I had the same problem after upgrading from Server 3 to Server 4.

I figured out that mail is working fine when I was editing the main.cf ( /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/main.cf ) and comment out the following line as so:

#smtpd_require_virtual_map = yes

The hint was given here by "dboals".

But this is not a proper solution 'cause every time the Server App receives an update or the Mail Server is updated Server 4 is updating the main.cf also and is un-commenting that certain line so that the mail delivery breaks again.

So, I had to fix this.

Here is the solution which worked for me.

1. Start the Server App. And make sure that Mail and DNS services are up and running.

2. Go to "Mail"

3. In the domain section delete all domains except the one your server is listening to. Let's call it "mymaindomain.com". This domain must be managed by the DNS service on your server.

4. Go to "Accounts" > Users. Doubleclick any user of your decision and have a look on his/her mail address. You should see only one mail address ending with "@mymaindomain.com".

5. In my case I was using the Mac shortnames as the account names. That caused trouble 'cause I want to have the mail addresses in the way "prename.surname@mymaindomain.com". So I had to rename the account names for each user to prename.surname. (there are some "how tos" by Apple to get this done whith keeping any data)

6. Reboot the server. I preferred to turn the server completely off... and on.

7. Go back in the Server App > Mail.

8. In the domain section click on "+" to add a new domain. In the next window type your additional domain in Domain line - let's say "myseconddomain.com". In the section below you should now enter some members of "myseconddomain.com" and validate the mail addresses that are created for the users you specified. Then click on "create" ... The Server App will now create all the files postfix needs to run virtual domains.

9. You are done!

It seems to be necessary to create the mail addresses that way and NOT in the Accounts / Users section.

Robert

I too had the problem caused by the apple-inserted main.cf line "smtpd_require_virtual_map = yes". The result of its insertion was the immediate rejection of any aliases(@myDomain.org.uk) that had been created for any of the users of my server (caused by the main.cf entry "unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550"). Clearly, with "smtpd_require_virtual_map = yes", any and all email addresses have to be set up in Server:Mail under each of the domains for which aliases are required. As the line is not a common Postfix command, making the line "smtpd_require_virtual_map = no" or commenting it out or deleting it will ensure that aliases entered into the Directory Service (through Local Network Users:Advanced) will function correctly for the main host domain. Any virtual domains hosted under Mail will still have to have any and all email addresses associated with a User within the Domain controls under Mail.

What really irks me is Apple's insistence on using a non-standard postfix command without showing that it is Apple-only (as some others in main.cf are) AND making the change on every update without checking what it had been set to previously!! 😠