sending emails via smtp from a server installed as IaaS in azure - azure

i have many application servers (cyber-ark, SIEM solution, forti gate etc') installed on azure as a IaaS.
all of them connect to an smtp server in order to send notifications via mail.
on my on Prem deployments, this was not an issue, but on azure, all smtp communication seems to be blocked.
i created a send-grid account and tried playing with it, but the send grid smtp server is getting blocked too.
what is the right way to work in this scenario ?
i need a smtp server to integrate with my applications...
what should i do ?
thanks,
david

Depends on your type of subscription, pay-as-you-go if you want the ability to send email from Azure VMs directly to external email providers (not using an authenticated SMTP relay), you can make a request to remove the restriction. Requests will be reviewed and approved at Microsoft's discretion, and they'll be granted only after additional anti-fraud checks are made. To make a request, open a support case by using the following issue type: Technical > Virtual Network > Connectivity > Cannot send email (SMTP/Port 25). Make sure that you add details about why your deployment has to send mail directly to mail providers instead of using an authenticated relay. More details

Related

authenticating a backend server with oauth but the server is on a private VLAN

I am trying to authenticate a backend server with OAUTH in order to send emails from that backend server. The thing I don't understand is how can I do this if the server will only ever be run locally on a VLAN.
Is this even possible?
What I am currently doing:
Backend server (Running Node) uses Basic Authentication credentials (username & password) to authenticate then send an email through Office 365 account to a user using SMTP. Basic auth is being deprecated though and is being replaced by OAUTH.
What I want to do:
Replace basic authentication with OAUTH to authenticate and send emails from backend server through office 365 account.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The usual migration path here is Client Credentials Flow which should work like this:
Back end on private VLAN must be able to make outbound calls to the Authorization Server (Azure AD in your case).
The advantage should be that the credential is not revealed every time you want to send an email, and OAuth access tokens are used instead.
This should work in locked down environments where outbound calls are restricted. Usually a whitelist is configured in the firewall - eg all URLs other than Azure AD are blocked.
This is specially for how to implement it using Azure Active Directory & Office365 as the E-mail sender, but the main ideas for how to implement this should work for other services. The only caveat is that some other services will require you to obtain an accessToken first and use that in conjunction with their API.
Using the information about Client Credentials Flow provided by #Gary Archer
combined with the Microsoft Graph SDK
as well as examples for how to:
Register an app in Azure
How to Create a Client
Get ID of User by fetching user data
How to send Emails
I was able to figure this out.

IP address range for BigCommerce hosting?

I would like to secure my servers for incoming traffic from BigCommerce.
BigCommerce allows for configuring a 3rd party email server
as well as webhooks. What are the addresses that will be used by these services?
We can't guarantee that webhooks will be sent from a specific block of IPs--those addresses can change any time and without notice. But if the purpose is to confirm that incoming webhooks are coming from BigCommerce, you can specify custom headers when creating your webhook. The headers are returned in the webhook payload, so you could set the custom header to a basic auth username/password, and check that at runtime to authenticate the POST.
We do have a list of IPs that I can send you for the SMTP server. Happy to connect by email if your contact info is still the same!

DocuSign Connect Not Sending Out XML Messages

I am trying to get DocuSign Connect to make HTTP Post request to my URL.
I have done some testing with POSTMAN app on google chrome and I am able to process the DocuSign XML Messages sent through this HTTP Post Request.
Attached is my setup.
I am unable to receive any messages from DocuSign (I have tried both sending and signing) and additionally I do not see any logs under Logs or Failures.
Is there any possible reason for this?
Updates: I was using a Self-Signed Certificate on my application and hence DocuSign was unable to post the XML message to my web service.
This has been resolved after installation of a DocuSign accepted certificate.
Assuming your account is configured properly for Connect and you do not see anything in the logs or failures here's some possible reasons:
Security software or firewall on your side blocking/catching the message before it reaches your listener
You are filtering for an envelope you do not have permission to.
Your tests are invalid (i.e. you've configured for a signing event but the user is declining or taking some other action).
Also, I just realized you don't have Require Acknowledgement enabled in your Connect config- try turning that on to see if any failures start showing up. Here's the description from the docs of this option:
"Require Acknowledgment: Select this option to log posting failures. DocuSign waits 100 seconds for an acknowledgement before recording a failure. DocuSign logs a failure if the attempt to reach the external endpoint returns anything other than an HTTP 200. The acknowledgment failure messages are logged on the Failures page, which is accessed by clicking FAILURES on the Connect page. When this option is selected, DocuSign will automatically attempt to repost any failures. You can also manually repost from the Failures page."
Check that you have "Connect" enabled as one of the account's features. Do this using the admin tool (New DocuSign Experience) or Preferences in Classic.
Also, if you're trying out Connect on a production account, only some types of accounts include the Connect feature. Contact your Account Manager if it isn't enabled.
All Developer Sandbox accounts on the demo platform do include Connect.
All account types support webhook subscriptions at the envelope level using the eventNotification feature.
Are you using production account or sandbox account for docusign connect.. You must include the protocol HTTP or HTTPS in the web address for sandox account and you must include HTTPS:// in the web address for Production accounts because SSL is required in Production account. Docusign Connect sends the xml to the default ports of 443 for HTTPS: and 80 for HTTP. If you cannot use port 443 for Production contact DocuSign to review possible options. Check this link for docusign connect technical information.. Hope you have handled the server side of it (i.e, the url which you have mentioned in the URL to publish) inorder to get the response from the docusign to the desired url when some event happens..
For example:
If you are using sandbox docusign account for Connect means, URL to publish as to be something like this http://domain.com/Home/DocuConnect (Hosted application port number as to be 80). For sandbox account,docusign connect are enabled defaultly for all the users.
If you are using production account for Connect means, URL to publish as to be something like this https://domain.com/Home/DocuConnect (Hosted application port number as to be 443). In some cases docusign connect are enabled based on the respective subscription plans. To check that go to features tab see for Docusign Connect and try to tick the checkbox and if it is not checked then you got to contact the Docusign Account Manager.

DocuSign Connect notifications in DocuSign demo account

We are having issues with Connect notifications from our DocuSign demo account.We are not able to receive any updates from our Connect configuration. Though, when I republished the XML from Connect logs, I did receive a Connect update to a specified URL.
When I created new envelopes using API as well as from DocuSign account itself, I never got any notifications to the same URL.I do not even see a Connect log.
We do not have any issues with Connect notifications for our DocuSign live account.
We have never experienced this issue before with Connect updates from our DocuSign demo account.
Please advise.
Just a hunch - do you use http or https? connect can only work over port 443 with a valid SSL certificate. If you're on localhost - you may need to get a temp certificate or something like that but also using azure websites is good way to avoid this issue since they're pretty much just as good as working on your localhost

Does smtp in IIS refer to smtp service or smtp server?

In control panel there is a option to turn on certain features that are not installed by default. When you turn on IIS feature it has an option called smtp email. Does it refer to smtp service or smtp server? I have looked for the answer. But there is no concrete answer. Some say it's a service others say it refers to server. Can anyone please help me with the confusion??
The SMTP service under IIS is a simple relay agent. You really cannot use it as a mail server, as there is no real interface for retrieving (reading) emails from that service.
You typically use the SMTP service as a sending buffer for outgoing emails generated by your server (e.g. website). You configure the SMTP service as a relay for outgoing emails (e.g. to a smarthost) and then you can have your website generate emails to the local SMTP service. This way your website is not affected if network or other server problems would affect mail sending, as the SMTP service queues the emails you generate and can automatically retry deliveries etc.

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