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How to Use Amazon SES as a Smarthost

Brian Jacobs
  • Updated

Introduction

Many providers now block outbound connections on port 25, meaning a cPanel system would need to configure a Smarthost to allow outbound emails to function. This guide covers how to set up a Smarthost using Amazon SES.

Important Limitation

When using Amazon SES as your Smarthost, you must verify ownership of every domain with which you want to send messages from your server. This means you'll need to manually update and maintain the AWS SES verification each time a domain is added or removed from the server.

You can learn more about this limitation here:

Amazon SES FAQ 

Further information about the AWS SES Authentication and Verification process can be found here:

 

Procedure

These settings can be done either from the command line or using the WHM Exim Configuration Manager under the Advance Editor. The following guide will focus on how to do this through the WHM interface.

Please note, these instructions are updated for cPanel & WHM version 108 and above.

  1.  Navigate to the "Advanced Editor" tab in the WHM interface "Home / Service Configuration / Exim Configuration Manager".
  2. On this page, you will need to add the following blocks of code to the following sections:
    • Section: PREROUTERS
      send_via_ses: 
        driver = manualroute 
        domains = ! +local_domains  : ! +manualmx_domains
        .ifdef SRSENABLED
          # if outbound, and forwarding has been done, use an alternate transport
          transport = ${if eq {$local_part@$domain} \
                {$original_local_part@$original_domain} \
                {ses_smtp} {ses_forwarded_smtp}}
        .else
          transport = ses_smtp
        .endif
        route_list = * email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com;

      The route_list URL "email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com" should be replaced by the appropriate endpoint you are using with SES
      Regions and Amazon SES

    • Section: TRANSPORTSTART 
      ses_smtp: 
        driver = smtp 
        port = 587 
        hosts_require_auth = * 
        hosts_require_tls = *

      .ifdef SRSENABLED
        ses_forwarded_smtp:
          driver = smtp
          hosts_require_auth = *
          hosts_require_tls = *
          max_rcpt = 1
          return_path = ${srs_encode {SRS_SECRET} {$return_path} {$original_domain}}
      .endif
    • Section: AUTH
      ses_login: 
       driver = plaintext 
       public_name = LOGIN 
       client_send = : USERNAME : PASSWORD
      You must ensure you updated the client_send USERNAME and PASSWORD with the SMTP username and password provided by Amazon
  3. Go to the bottom of the page and click "Save". The changes will be added to the Exim configuration and automatically restart the Exim service.
  4. Try sending a test email using one of the Webmail applications. If the email does not leave the server, you must examine the /var/log/exim_mainlog file to determine the cause of the issue.

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