Hi everyone. I am considering moving my email to my OSX Server. Is anyone out there running a Mail server willing to share their thoughts? Is it stable? Any issues with updates?
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Are you running MacOS Mail Server
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belvdr
macrumors 603
With so many great cloud options, I gave up on hosting my own. Too much work for little benefit. Good luck!
techwarrior
macrumors 65816
hey, why not. It was a big hit for Hillary.
I have not gone down that route yet, but know some who have. They report no issues. But, with all the free email services out there, why?
I have not gone down that route yet, but know some who have. They report no issues. But, with all the free email services out there, why?
We ran Microsoft Exchange Servers for many years and moved across to OS X (macOS) Server a couple of years ago. We haven't experienced any notable issues since moving across to OS X Server. So long as you are happy running your own mail server, maintaining it, and managing incoming spam etc then IMHO OS X Server is much easier to manage than Microsoft Exchange. We've not had any issues with running upgrades/updates.
960design
macrumors 68040
I ran an hMailServer for many years, ran a MacOSX mail server for about two years and have finally just turned everything over to a Cloud solution. About $100US / year for 'unlimited' inboxes / storage plus backups is just too easy to NOT use. I use two Mac Servers, one for webhosting and proprietary source code the other for caching and testing. Haven't had the mail up and running for about two years now.
bingeciren
macrumors 65816
I've been running two Mac Mini servers for my small businesses for the past 5 years. We haven't encountered any major problems. They are fairly easy to maintain and keep it running. Knowing how to add spam IP addresses to Postfix also helps to create your own spam filter and gives you a finer control.
However, in order to set-up and run your own mail server you need to: 1) Have a static IP, 2) Register your forward and reverse DNS for your domain, 3) Obtain a mail certificate. You can use a free self signed certificate but if your mail clients use anything other than Mac Mail, paying for a legitimate certificate minimizes any potential certificate authentication issues. 4) Run a 7/24 server with backups.
There are many companies for the above mentioned services at a reasonable cost. Item #4 is your responsibility.
The major advantage of hosting your own mail service is that your data resides in your computer and you have full control. This alone could be a sufficient reason for some, however @960design has a valid argument as well.
However, in order to set-up and run your own mail server you need to: 1) Have a static IP, 2) Register your forward and reverse DNS for your domain, 3) Obtain a mail certificate. You can use a free self signed certificate but if your mail clients use anything other than Mac Mail, paying for a legitimate certificate minimizes any potential certificate authentication issues. 4) Run a 7/24 server with backups.
There are many companies for the above mentioned services at a reasonable cost. Item #4 is your responsibility.
The major advantage of hosting your own mail service is that your data resides in your computer and you have full control. This alone could be a sufficient reason for some, however @960design has a valid argument as well.
Longer Lane
macrumors member
I have been running mail services using Mac OS X Server since at least 2005. My machines run 24/7 with regular backups. So far, it has been pretty clear sailing with maybe one or two corrupted upgrades, which could be resolved quickly.
I thought about using a cloud provider, however, regulatory requirements ask for the data to be accessible physically and under my control.
Only issue I have with the mail server is fail-over: usually, one should have several mx records in one's DNS settings/several mail servers, in case one crashes or is not connected to the internet anymore. There isn't really an off the shelf solution to provide adequate replication, unless one wants to start running a number of shell scripts over a fast internet connection.
LL
I thought about using a cloud provider, however, regulatory requirements ask for the data to be accessible physically and under my control.
Only issue I have with the mail server is fail-over: usually, one should have several mx records in one's DNS settings/several mail servers, in case one crashes or is not connected to the internet anymore. There isn't really an off the shelf solution to provide adequate replication, unless one wants to start running a number of shell scripts over a fast internet connection.
LL
I moved to MacOS mail several years ago when my network provider went out of business as it ended up being cheaper to run my own mail box than pay someone else.
There are several important considerations that you have to make if you want to do this though.
Firstly you need your own domain name and then you need a DNS provider that will route you mail to your domain.
The other important consideration is the protection of your network, you will have to open up your network ports to allow mail in and this will invite every spammer on the net, so you will need a good firewall.
Once you have done all of that setting up your mail server is very straight forward and you get the benefit of having total control of all you email addresses. I have mail addresses for my wife and each of my children and group accounts for the family plus accounts I use for online shopping etc to control spam. As I own the domain and control the post room I can route all of this information to the correct recipient from the server.
The only real bug bear is the management of SPAM, but I recently discovered how to set that up on the server so that is also now under control.
On unexpected side benefit is that a lot of companies filter gmail etc and prevent them joining forums and other business accounts, but s I have my own domain I have no issues.
So as long as you don't mind the setup complications and small management overhead of managing your own system then it works flawlessly and has for me for nearly 7 years now.
One other point worth making is that it is also worth investing in a decent UPS, as if your server goes down your mail bounces. I have my broadband and server on a UPS that can run for over 2 hours.
belvdr
macrumors 603
If your server is unavailable, mail should be queued at the sender for a period of time and retried at intervals. If memory serves me correctly, it will be queued for one day.
That is correct, you get about 1 days worth queued up before you start to loose it, but I also run a WEB site from my server so the UPS is pretty much essential.
An for mail the UPS is more useful when I am on the road or overseas, I travel a lot for work, nice to know that when I am having an email conversation with someone that my server is up and running
belvdr
macrumors 603
If email is that critical, I'd see about hosting that provides some fault tolerance.
QzzB
macrumors regular
If you are adamant in running your own web server, look into a MX filtering service. These will then queue up the email if there is a outage, so sent from server straight away and will queue on your side not the sender side, and the email is relayed to you.
It also masks your MX records (as it will be theirs and not your home IP) and you use the Mail Relay through host option in OSX server. You do need to pay, but often will offer SPAM and Virus scanning before it hits your server.
One that I have used in the past, which is cheap and doesn't require a enterprise account is Comodo AntiSpam Gateway https://www.comodo.com/business-security/email-security/antispam-gateway.php
Think its about $30 per year for 5 users (or something like that).
It also masks your MX records (as it will be theirs and not your home IP) and you use the Mail Relay through host option in OSX server. You do need to pay, but often will offer SPAM and Virus scanning before it hits your server.
One that I have used in the past, which is cheap and doesn't require a enterprise account is Comodo AntiSpam Gateway https://www.comodo.com/business-security/email-security/antispam-gateway.php
Think its about $30 per year for 5 users (or something like that).