As a counterpoint, macOS is configurable with all the BSD flags you need to 
configure a performant server. Just add these options to /etc/sysctl.conf, 
which although does not exist in macOS 12, can easily be edited and works 
across reboots.

I just did this myself for a native VPN server using net.inet.ip.forwarding, 
net.inet6.ip6.forwarding, and kern.ipc.somaxconn.

The mail server tools used in the old macOS Server.app really have been 
(greatly) surpassed by current alternatives, e.g. rspamd instead of 
spamassassin, and Apache Solar searches versus whatever the old slow dovecot 
search plugin was. I used to run a mail server on Server.app, and the mail 
server configure in the port mail-server is MUCH more performant and nicer.

Furthermore, macOS has migrated to much better kernel-level security tools like 
pfctl that more than offset the pain of migration to a macOS-specific 
environment.

All-in-all, the mail and other servers I’ve observed running on macOS have all 
been rock solid, at the expense of the necessity of adapting from cookie-cutter 
Linux or BSD options, but with the simplified workflow of not needing to 
maintain another VPS somewhere.


> On Mar 5, 2022, at 8:56 AM, Ralph Seichter via macports-users 
> <macports-users@lists.macports.org> wrote:
> 
> While MacPorts provides the necessary ports for running a mail server on
> macOS, I'd suggest an alternative approach if you are dead set on using
> a Mac as the server machine. As mentioned here before, Apple is not
> making it easy to use regular macOS for server use, and this seems to be
> a deliberate decision on their end.

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