# Trouble setting up AWS SES with Helm Install

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** unsupported-install
**Created:** [March 17, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631 "2025-03-17T19:35:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kuzea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/838e76/32.png) [@kuzea](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kuzea)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631/1 "2025-03-17T19:35:46Z")

</div>

Hello,

I recently installed Discourse to my Kubernetes cluster using the bitnami discourse helm chart. I am attempting to get it working with the AWS SES I have configured currently that works with other addresses and services I have running, but I cant seem to get Discourse to work.

I’ve looked over the various documentation and there seems to be conflicting information whether the variable should be DISCOURSE\_SMTP\_NOTIFICATION\_EMAIL or DISCOURSE\_NOTIFICATION EMAIL ([Troubleshoot email on a new Discourse install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/troubleshoot-email-on-a-new-discourse-install/16326?silent=true) and [discourse\_docker/samples/standalone.yml at main · discourse/discourse\_docker · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker/blob/main/samples/standalone.yml#L64-L70)) so I just put both in the extra env variables.

```plaintext
smtp:
  enabled: true
  host: "email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com"
  port: "587"
  user: "XXXXX"
  password: "XXXXX"
  protocol: "tls"
  auth: ""
  existingSecret: ""

sidekiq:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: DISCOURSE_SMTP_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL
      value: discourse@exampledomain.com
    - name: DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN
      value: exampledomain.com
    - name: DISCOURSE_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL
      value: discourse@exampledomain.com

discourse:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: DISCOURSE_SMTP_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL
      value: discourse@exampledomain.com
    - name: DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN
      value: exampledomain.com
    - name: DISCOURSE_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL
      value: discourse@exampledomain.com

```

When I send a test email, I get the following error in the “skipped” section:

```plaintext
554 Transaction failed: Invalid domain name: '127.0.0.1'.

```

The troubleshooting guide mentioned the following:

```plaintext
The default email from address is based on the install domain plus subdomain, so if your URL is `discourse.example.com` it will be:

`noreply@discourse.example.com`

But if your mail provider is expecting:

`noreply@example.com`

… you may have problems! To get around this, edit and uncomment this exec line in `app.yml`

```

However, I am unable to comment out that line once in the container.

I am deploying Discourse to `discourse.subdomain.exampledomain.com` and I was trying to set the SMTP domain value using the `DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN` extra env variabe, but maybe that is not working because in the email configuration settings on the website, the domain name is showing up empty.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/f/e/3/fe3b322619063bbde20e6f0caa321478e3061726.png)

Is there some value or configuration that I am missing to get it to work?

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631/3 "2025-03-17T19:40:56Z")

</div>

You need a whole lot more variables defined to crank up that container. And you need to migrate the database and precompile assets, for starters. And you need a domain name, and something to handle the https certs.

You should start with a [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true), and then work from there. Once you have something that works that way, you can get some hints from

```plaintext
 ./launcher start-cmd app

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kuzea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/838e76/32.png) [@kuzea](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kuzea)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631/4 "2025-03-17T19:42:32Z")

</div>

Sorry, I shouldve clarified. The discourse containers all start up okay, I am just having issues with the emailing portion of it. Should I still go through the [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) process anyway?

Thanks for the speedy reply!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-setting-up-aws-ses-with-helm-install/357631/5 "2025-03-17T19:49:11Z")

</div>

Hmm. Don’t know. Maybe I misunderstood the error messages.

> [@kuzea](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> 554 Transaction failed: Invalid domain name: '127.0.0.1'.
> 
> ```

That looks like Discourse doesn’t know its hostname? But I could be wrong.