OS X server 5 mail service missing when adding account

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Level 1

25 points

OS X server 5 mail service missing when adding account

Hi!

I am reviving my knowledge on OS X server and have just migrated my secondary business to OS X server 5.2 on El Capitan on an OLD Mac mini Server. Everything seems to work OK except for one thing...

When adding the OS X server account on macOS Sierra and iOS 10 devices the mail and notes part of the account doesn't show up?!?

At first it did, but then it stopped showing up.

Adding the account adds contacts, calendar, VPN, reminders and file sharing just fine.

If I go and add a mail account separately, it works just fine too! so there is no problem with the service in itself.. mail works as it should. sending and receiving mail too.

I have restarted services and the server itself to try resolving this, but no change.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jan 6, 2017 12:59 AM

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Answer 1

Driver28 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 6, 2017 3:06 AM in response to jepping

Hi!

Thanks for your reply! All ports are configured using server.app. my router is a TimeCapsule so its automatically configured by the server. all services are reachable from the port testing website you referenced and all services are working normally. in Server.app under reachability the services tested are listed but status is unknown in the tool.

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Answer 2

jepping

Level 3

785 points

Jan 6, 2017 2:19 AM in response to Driver28

Hi,

Did you check your DNS of your server and the FQDN of your server?

How did you setup the account on your client, locally or externally through the internet?

Have you opened the correct ports for email, the automated setup might use different ports first while Apple Mail might give you an option for choosing different ports.

At least for a mailserver ports 25, 143, 465, 587 and 993 should be open.

Verify those ports here:

TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products - Apple Support

and check reachability (not the one from the server.app) here:

http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

Goodluck!

Jeffrey

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Answer 3

jepping

Level 3

785 points

Jan 6, 2017 3:12 AM in response to Driver28

Hi,

It seems like your local server does not have a FQDN name which is reachable from the internet as well.

The screenshot says the public host name does not resolve to the correct IP address.

Did you edit your DNS records for your domain to include an a-record for your local server and have you setup the server to be reachable from the internet using the "change hostname" in the server.app?

There you can select how your server can be found internally and externally with a FQDN.

Goodluck

Jeffrey

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Answer 4

jepping

Level 3

785 points

Jan 7, 2017 4:24 AM in response to Driver28

Hi,

What kind of output do you get when you use this line in the terminal:

sudo changeip -checkhostname

You should get a response like this:

dirserv:success = "success"

I am curious what kind of reply you will get.
Goodluck

Jeffrey

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Answer 5

jepping

Level 3

785 points

Jan 7, 2017 4:24 AM in response to Driver28

Ok great, so verify the local FQDN of your server with the DNS records of your domain.

That seems to be out of sync, according to the public host name.

Depending on your dhcp and dns setup, setting up mail looks externally and fails because of the public host name mismatch.

Verify your server dns settings with:

http://mxtoolbox.com

Goodluck

Jeffrey

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Answer 6

Driver28 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 6, 2017 9:44 AM in response to jepping

Hi!

As I said I can receive and send mail just fine. The only thing not getting green light is the availability service. All services say green and reachable at but no host name at every individual service I have DNS internally pointing the fqdn to the servers internal up and the public DNS pointing to the external ip.

I also host 2 mail domains and under mail service both are green.

Where do you mean the mismatch is?

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Answer 7

jepping

Level 3

785 points

Jan 7, 2017 3:39 AM in response to Driver28

Hi,

The original question was why the server did not auto configurated the mail accounts.

That's what we were trying to find out. That issue could be related to DNS.

Great to see everything is working great, do you want to follow up on the original issue and try to resolve it?

Kind regards

Jeffrey

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Answer 8

Driver28 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 7, 2017 4:24 AM in response to jepping

Hi Jeffrey!

This morning I was looking at settings in Profile Manager and came across the MacOS Server payload. I assigned this payload to a user to see what services were added, and after settings were pushed I realized that only file sharing had been added. Reviewing the Profile Manager help i concluded that this is what to expect. this payload only adds file sharing.

I then removed this setting from my user and by chance looked at the settings under the original MacOS Server account that I had added to the device manually, and all of a sudden the missing services mail and notes were visible again on both an iPhone and an iPad! i just had to turn them on and now they are working as they should without the need to ad them separately. No change on the server has been made during this time. No config, no reboot nothing. Still as stated in another thread of mine, reachability isn't working properly, but this was the bigger issue of the two. reachability is more of a cosmetic thing really.

I want to thank you for helping me on this issue!

/Hasse

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