AWS SES setup notes

README.md

Every time we use AWS it's a tedious process to learn about everything so we like to make documents summarizing the steps we took and why. Here's our SES setup notes:

1. Create AWS account
2. Verify email account with AWS
   • https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/ses/home#verified-senders-email:
3. Click confirmation email in inbox
4. Enable DKIM integration (disables via amazonses.com noise)
   • Requires DNS access
   • Takes up to 72 hours
   • Verify DNS properly configured via
     • txt:_amazonses.{{my-domain}}. on http://mxtoolbox.com/
     • cname:{{dkim-key}}._domainkey.{{my-domain}}. on http://mxtoolbox.com/
5. Set up SNS topic for bounces/complaints (ideally should be none if we handle things right)
   1. Create SNS topic: ses-notifications
      • https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/sns/v2/home#/topics
   2. Create "email" subscription to topic
      1. Click through to new topic details
      2. Use "Create subscription" button
      3. Click confirm email in inbox
   3. Go back to SES tab and refresh page
   4. Set bounce/complaint notifications to SNS topic
      • We decided to not include original headers for now as we don't know the behavior
6. Test everything works as expected by sending a test email
   1. Exit details view (back to Email Addresses)
   2. Select email address
   3. Press "Send a Test Email" button
   4. Use "Formatted" and body with text and a link (e.g. This is test content and <a href="http://google.com">a test link</a>)
   5. Verify email is received and has proper HTML
7. Set up SMTP via "SMTP settings"
   1. Go to "SMTP settings in navigation"
   2. Click "Create My SMTP Credentials"
   3. Name user "ses-{{my-domain}}"
   4. Save credentials
   5. Update policy to have "Action": ["ses:SendEmail", "ses:SendRawEmail"],
      • http://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/control-user-access.html#iam-and-ses-examples-email-sending-actions
8. Request AWS to increase sending limit
   • Can take up to 24 hours
   • http://aws.amazon.com/ses/fullaccessrequest/
   • https://aws.amazon.com/ses/faqs/
9. Test out sending to unverified domains (e.g. personal email)
   • Must have AWS sending limit approved before doing so

Notes:

• We don't set up IAM as SMTP can handle errors and SMTP makes it easier to switch providers
  • We dislike rate limit turnaround time
  • https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/ses/how-to-handle-a-throttling-maximum-sending-rate-exceeded-error/
• We don't set up MAIL FROM Domain as DKIM should take care of that