AWS Lambda SES SMTPLib Email Timing Out Using Python

Question

My lambda environment is set up in us-east-2 however I know SES only is present in us-east-1. This is the code:

    sent_from = "[email protected]"
    send_to = "[email protected]"
    aws_user_name = "<USER NAME KEY>"
    #stub - replace this
    aws_password = "<USER PASSWORD KEY>"
    logger.info("send_emails: start")

    for email in email_list:

        try:

            logger.info("send_emails: step 1: smtp")
            server = smtplib.SMTP()
            logger.info("send_emails: step 2: smtp")
            server.connect('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com', 587)
            #server.ehlo()
            logger.info("send_emails: step 3: smtp")            
            server.starttls()
            logger.info("send_emails: step 4: smtp")
            #logger.info("User: " + aws_user_user + " Password:" + aws_password)
            server.login(aws_user_name, aws_password)
            logger.info("Email Send To: " + email[1])
            logger.info("Test Point: send_emails: A")
            #server.sendmail(sent_from, email[1], email_body.as_string())
            #REPLACE THIS LINE.  THIS IS JUST FOR TESTING.
            server.sendmail(sent_from, send_to, email_body.as_string())
            server.close()
            insert_into_email_sent_tbl(email[0], "Success")
            logger.info('Email sent!')
            return True

        except Exception as e: 
            logger.info(e)  
            logger.info('Something went wrong...')
            insert_into_email_sent_tbl(email[0], "Fail")
            return False

It times out right here with a 10 second time out. It always stops at this line of code: logger.info("send_emails: step 3: smtp") which means it stops here server.connect('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com', 587).

I've given access to both of these email addresses in the SES AWS Console.

Do I have to move the function to us-east-1. Please keep in mind that my RDS instance is in us-east-2.

EDIT

These are my security group rules for outbound:

My Inbound rules are as follows:

The sources are my work and home machines.

from a quick read, are you sure you want to have this commented out? #server.ehlo() — erik258
– erik258, Commented Dec 26, 2019 at 19:45

Arun Kamalanathan · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-27 06:58:09Z

1

The solution was to add the host name to the smtplib.SMTP() as well

print("send_emails: step 1: smtp")
print("send_emails: step 1: smtp")
server = smtplib.SMTP('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com')
print("send_emails: step 2: smtp")
server.connect('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com', 587)
#server.ehlo()
print("send_emails: step 3: smtp")            
server.starttls()

looks like its a python bug

edited Dec 27, 2019 at 6:58

answered Dec 27, 2019 at 0:53

Arun Kamalanathan

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18 Comments

SonOfSeuss Over a year ago

See above for my inbound and outbound rules. But I think my outbound rule is compliant with what you said. My RDS and lambda are in the same region us-east-2 but SES is only available in us-east-1. Will I have to set up peering between VPCs on each region for this Lambda? Will this be a problem?

Arun Kamalanathan Over a year ago

No you don't need peering just to use ses, we have the same setup at my work.

Arun Kamalanathan Over a year ago

updated the answer, this is working for me perfectly.

SonOfSeuss Over a year ago

logger.info("send_emails: step 1: smtp") server = smtplib.SMTP('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com') logger.info("send_emails: step 2: smtp") server.connect('email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com', 587) #server.ehlo() logger.info("send_emails: step 3: smtp") server.starttls()

SonOfSeuss Over a year ago

Still not working. Still timing out at the second line.

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