amazon_ses

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Setup - The basics of getting started with amazon_ses
   • What amazon_ses affects
   • Setup requirements
   • Beginning with amazon_ses
4. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
5. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
6. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Overview

Configures and sets up postfix to integrate with Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES).

Module Description

The module installs postfix and configures it to relay smtp to the Amazon SES smtp server.
It uses the self-signed certs for TLS authentication with Amazon SES. By default it connects to port 587 as this port does not have any restrictions. Port 25 by default limits 1 email per minute, if you choose port 25, make sure you apply for that restriction to be removed from your domain.

The intention of this module is to reduce the startup and configuration time of integration with Amazon SES and to avoid simple postfix configuration errors.

The current release is supported for debian based systems with Ubuntu as the tested platform.
Contributions are welcome for Redhat based systems.

Setup

What amazon_ses affects

• /etc/postfix/main.cf
• /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
• /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd.db

Setup Requirements

In order to use Amazon SES, you must login to your Amazon account and do the following.

Register for Amazon SES

Go to the following link and sign up. (sign-up-for-aws)

Create a SMTP user

Create a SMTP user which is separate from your existing IAM users. The new user can be created via:

SES -> smtp settings -> 'Create My SMTP Credentials' button.

Take note of the username and password which will used by this module.

Verify Email Addresses

In order to test this module (once installed on your amazon ec2 instance), verify at least one email address that will be the recipient of your testing. (verify-email-addresses)

Verify Domain

In order to test this module (once installed), verify the domain that emails will be sent from. Amazon's SMTP servers will reject emails from unverified domains. So this is a very important step in order to start testing Amazon SES. See the following guide: (verify-domains)

Amazon SES Production Access

Your Amazon SES instance is by default setup in a sandbox. Once a domain and emails have been verified, you can start sending emails (only to the verified addresses). This obviously is limiting and only useful in a testing environment. Once you are ready to move to production, you need to apply for production level access which has no restriction on recipient addresses.

Follow this guide to apply for production access: (request-production-access)

Beginning with amazon_ses

To install postfix with Amazon SES configuration with the default parameters.

	class { 'amazon_ses':
  		domain => 'test.com',
  		smtp_username => 'USERNAME',
  		smtp_password => 'PASSWORD',
	}

Usage

###Classes and Defined Types

This module modifies the postfix configuration files and replaces the main configuration file.

####Class: amazon_ses

The amazon_ses module's primary class, amazon_ses, guides the basic setup of postfix on your system enabled for Amazon SES.

Parameters within amazon_ses:

#####domain The domain of your web site. In order to send email through SES servers, your domain must be verified. SES Management Console -> Domains -> Verify a New Domain See verify-domain for additional details.

#####smtp_port The port used to connect to the Amazon SMTP server. The default is 587 as there are no limits. If you use port 25, than you will need to request that Amazon disables the rate limit (which is 1 email per minute).

#####smtp_username The username of the smtp user. Note, this is not your IAM user. You need to create a unique user for the SES service. The new user can be created via:

SES -> smtp settings -> 'Create My SMTP Credentials' button.

#####smtp_password The password of the smtp user.

#####ses_region The region of the Amazon smtp server to relay to. Valid options:

• US EAST - The (N. Virginia) Region
• US WEST - The (Oregon) Region
• EU - The (Ireland) Region
• The default region is 'US EAST'

Limitations

Only works with debian based OS's.

Development

The module is open source and available on github. Please fork!