Email Setup Guide
This guide explains how to configure Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) as the email provider for your Nected deployment. Using Amazon SES, Nected can securely send notifications and emails through your AWS account.
📌 Note: For setting up an SMTP service account, you can refer to the following guides for popular cloud providers:
Azure Communication Services – Send Emails via SMTP Relay with Azure Communication Services
AWS SES – Send Email Using the SMTP Interface
AWS SES Programmatically – Send Using SMTP Programmatically
These resources provide detailed steps to configure SMTP service accounts for sending emails securely from your self-hosted Nected instance.
Configure Amazon SES
Prerequisites
Before configuring Amazon SES in Nected, ensure the following:
A deployed Nected instance. If not installed, refer to the Installation Guide.
An active AWS account. Create an AWS account if you don’t already have one.
Amazon SES setup completed:
Enable SES in your AWS account.
Generate the IAM user’s access key and secret key.
💡 Amazon SES enforces sending limits and sandbox restrictions. Refer to Managing your Amazon SES sending limits and Moving out of the sandbox for details.
To enable Amazon SES in your Nected deployment, update the configuration values in your nected-values.yaml Helm file (for Docker Deployment, the file will be nectedconfig/nalanda.env) as described below:
# Replace all the placeholder values with actual values
# Enable email functionality
SEND_EMAIL: "true"
# Set SES as the email provider
EMAIL_PROVIDER: "ses"
# AWS SES credentials
AWS_ACCESS_KEY: "<your_aws_access_key>"
AWS_SECRET_KEY: "<your_aws_secret_key>"
AWS_REGION: "<your_aws_region>" # e.g., us-west-2
# Sender information
SENDER_EMAIL: "<your_verified_ses_email>"
SENDER_NAME: "Nected Notifications"Configure Email using SMTP Server
Prerequisites
Before configuring SMTP email settings, ensure the following:
Your self-hosted Nected instance is installed. Refer to the Cloud Deployment Guide if not yet set up.
You have an active account with an SMTP email service provider (e.g., Gmail, SendGrid, Outlook, etc.).
Your email/domain is verified with your chosen SMTP provider.
You can configure your email provider in Nected using the following steps in your Helm deployment:
Edit your Helm values file (nected-values.yaml) (for Docker Deployment, the file will be nectedconfig/nalanda.env) and add the following SMTP email configuration block:
# Replace all the placeholder values with actual values
SEND_EMAIL: "true"
EMAIL_PROVIDER: "smtp"
SENDER_EMAIL: "<[email protected]>"
SENDER_NAME: "Nected Notifications"
EMAIL_HOST: "<smtp_host>"
EMAIL_PORT: "<smtp_port>"
EMAIL_USERNAME: "<smtp_username>"
EMAIL_PASSWORD: "<smtp_password>"Testing the Email Setup
To confirm that your Amazon SES configuration works correctly:
Trigger an email notification (e.g., password reset) from your Nected instance.
Verify receipt in the recipient inbox.
Check the spam/junk folder if the email doesn't appear in the primary inbox initially.
⚠️ Important:
To avoid emails being flagged as spam, ensure your DNS settings include a valid SPF record for Amazon SES.
Configure Azure Communication Services (ACS)
You can also configure Azure Communication Services (ACS) as the SMTP email provider for your self-hosted Nected deployment. ACS offers a stable SMTP relay that works smoothly with Nected’s email workflow, including authentication and notification emails.
Prerequisites
Before configuring ACS, confirm the following:
• Your Nected instance is deployed. • Your Azure Communication Services resource is created. • SMTP is enabled in the ACS resource. • You have a verified domain inside ACS Email Communication. • You have created the Entra application and service principal credentials (client secret).
During internal testing, ACS worked reliably with Nected once SMTP relay was configured.
Configure ACS in Nected
After ACS is ready, update the SMTP block in your nected-values.yaml (for Docker, update nectedconfig/nalanda.env) with the ACS SMTP details.
SEND_EMAIL: "true"
# Set SMTP as provider
EMAIL_PROVIDER: "smtp"
# Sender information
SENDER_EMAIL: "DoNotReply@your-domain-used-in-azure-email-service"
SENDER_NAME: "Support"
# Azure Communication Services SMTP relay configuration
EMAIL_INSECURE_TLS: "true"
EMAIL_HOST: "smtp.azurecomm.net"
EMAIL_PORT: "587"
# Azure Communication Services credentials
EMAIL_USERNAME: "<ACSResourceName>.<EntraApplicationID>.<EntraTenantID>"
EMAIL_PASSWORD: "<your_service_principal_secret>"The EMAIL_USERNAME format is derived from the ACS configuration and follows this structure:
<ACSResourceName>.<EntraApplicationID>.<EntraTenantID>Make sure the service principal secret is active and not expired.
Apply Updated Configuration
Once the values are updated, redeploy Nected:
helm upgrade -i nected nected/nected -f nected-values.yaml
kubectl rollout restart deploy nected-nalandaNote on SSL Certificate Updates
If your deployment uses HTTPS ingress, update your ingress certificate as usual.
Since Nected also relies on the scheme defined in the Helm values file, the chart needs to be redeployed after modifying the scheme from http to https.
If the certificate is ready and you want help verifying the configuration, feel free to reach out to the support team.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter any issues:
Verify SES identity status (email/domain) in your AWS SES Console.
Check AWS SES sending quotas (sending rate, daily sending limit).
Review Kubernetes pod logs for Nected backend service (
kubectl logs <nected-backend-pod>).
If you still have issues or require further assistance, please contact our support at [email protected].
Deploy Updated Configuration
Apply these updated values using Helm:
helm upgrade -i nected nected/nected -f values/nected-values.yaml
kubectl rollout restart deploy nected-nalandaLast updated