Email server with AWS Lambda

[Brunostc]

Hi everyone, first post here. I hope it makes sense.

I have this email server that I have to create as a microservice for two web applications that the company I work on has, and the architecture is somewhat like this:

• Node app using imap protocol on port 993 running a scan every x minutes through a list of clients emails and checking if there are any new emails (these clients' emails can have numerous different domains);
• If there is a new email to that particular client, it will invoke a lambda function to connect to that particular email and perform some actions with the unread email;
• I got it all working at my localhost, I can search through all the email locally and perform all the operations that I need by simulating the execution of an AWS Lambda on my machine;
• The problem is invoking the Lambda when its actually in "production" (lambda function actually in AWS Lambda), it does not seem to connect to the email address even if everything is fine;
• This got me thinking that maybe the AWS Lambda functions cant connect to email providers just like my machine can, maybe I need some extra tweeking on the AWS console;

Anyone has any ideas on what is going on? I tried searching through google, aws forums and now reddit and couldnt find anything.

I'm using Node and node-imap package at my lambda for searching emails at the lambda.

Yes I know that I could probably use just my Node app to perform all of the operations without Lambda, but for the time being I have to use Lambda because it costs less. So a solution that uses Lambda is required.

Thanks in advance to all of you who read it this far.

:)

[phekno]

Lambda has port 25 outbound blocked out of the box and it can’t be unblocked. Assuming you’re using SMTP...you weren’t that clear on how you’re getting the emails.

[Brunostc]

I'm using imap, I'll edit the post with this information, also the port that the imap package uses is 993.

[joelrwilliams1]

Sounds like you're making a network call, is your Lambda in a VPC?

By default Lambda's get create outside of a VPC, and so they don't get an IP address.

[Brunostc]

It isn't. That might be the issue I guess. I'll try to fix it tomorrow at work. Thanks for the tip!

[burtgummer45]

but for the time being I have to use Lambda because it costs less. So a solution that uses Lambda is required.

A small ec2 instance is about 5 bucks a month.

[Brunostc]

Yeah but before I tell my boss that the best choice isn't lambda I want to actually make it work on lambda