Hello AWS,
I'm a noob so please go easy! :-)
Multiple questions here.
TL;DR Can I have WordPress and Emails via Gmail using EC2 and SES?
I want to move all my websites from a VPS server I have (single point of failure) to AWS.
The plan was for each website to have its own EC2/Lightsail instance. (independent points of failure).
OK, so far I've spun up an EC2 instance and a Lightsail instance.
I've installed Bitnami WordPress from the marketplace.
https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00NN8Y43U?ref=cns_srchrow
and changed external DNS, I can see my websites. All is good so far!
Problem #1 - WordPress is not sending any emails
Contact forms, password forms, registration forms etc, are not sending out any emails!
I looked through the Bitnami WordPress installation and spotted the preinstalled plugin WP-Mail-SMTP.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/
I guess once I have SES working it will just a case of configuring this plugin to get WordPress working.
Problem #2 - No Email Server
After reading the docs I appreciate SES is a gateway and not a Mail Server.
So what's the missing piece?
Lambda?
WorkMail?
Some Mail Server from the marketplace instead of SES? or as well as?
Problem #3 - Configuring SES is awkward
Started up SES.
Verified the domain by adding DNS records.
Verified an email address.
I'm stuck here!!!
Where did the verification email go?
How do I verify? I've no email client at this point in time.
This is confusing!!
The AWS SES documentation is terse.
UPDATE Some progress.
Verified a Gmail account I own.
Successfully sent a test email from info@mydomain.com to Gmail.
Replied from Gmail and it failed. with a 550.
This above part was really badly explained in every tutorial I watched.
I assumed I was trying to verify info@mydomain.com
This needs to be made more clear in the SES documentation.
OK, now I'm going to setup Receiving emails.
Problem #4 - Gmail as an Email client
Most of my customers use Gmail.
They have an existing someone@gmail.com account
And they just want to add their domain email info@somecompany.com as a secondary account.
So they waste no time learning the nuances of a new Email Client.
Is Gmail a compatible email client for use with SES?
Possible Solutions?
- Install some sort of email server on every EC2 instance? Bloat???
- Spin up an extra separate EC2 instance that's a dedicated email server handling all emails for every EC2 WordPress server that I create? Is this possible?
- WorkMail seems to be too expensive. Initially cheap at just $4 pppm. The cost of WorkMail subtracts from the cheapness of EC2/Lightsail as you scale up the number of users.
- SES and Lambda solution? Will this allow expected functionality e.g. reply to, reply to all, forward, CC, BCC etc?
I've watched multiple youtube videos and read many tutorials.
I can't find a clear step-by-step guide on how to set this up (if it's even possible?)
Surely I can't be the first person to encounter this scenario???
Is AWS a good solution fit for a solo web developer like me?
Any advice is welcomed.
Thanks in advance.
Edited by: LordLiverpool on Feb 2, 2019 9:56 AM