The Good Tech Companies - How I Automated AWS WorkMail Backups for Multiple Users

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/how-i-automated-aws-workmail-backups-for-multiple-users. Automate AWS WorkMail backups and imports for multiple users. Step-by-step guide to set up scripts handling 10 concurrent export/import jobs for mail backup Check more stories related to cloud at: https://hackernoon.com/c/cloud. You can also check exclusive content about #aws, #backup, #cloud, #cloud-backup, #powershell, #aws-workmail, #amazon-web-services, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @th3n00bc0d3r. Learn more about this writer by checking @th3n00bc0d3r's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. AWS WorkMail is a powerful email and calendar service that combines security, reliability, and ease of use. By leveraging AWS WorkMail, organizations can focus on their core activities without worrying about the complexities of managing email infrastructure. In this tutorial, I'll walk you through the process of automating Amazon WorkMail backups for multiple users, handling up to 10 concurrent mailbox export jobs.

This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. How I Automated AWS WorkMail Backups for Multiple Users, by Mohamed Balal. AWS WorkMail is a powerful email and calendar service that combines security, reliability, and ease of use. Its integration with AWS services and compatibility with existing email clients make it an attractive choice for businesses looking to streamline their email and calendar management while ensuring security and compliance. By leveraging AWS WorkMail, organizations can focus on their core activities without worrying about the complexities of managing email infrastructure. Setting up a reliable backup system for your AWS WorkMail

is crucial to ensure that your emails are secure and easily recoverable. In this tutorial, I'll walk you through the process of automating AWS WorkMail backups for multiple users, handling up to 10 concurrent mailbox export jobs. We will use AWS services and Python to create a robust backup solution. Ah, I remember the time I was using the CPAANEL mail server and then meddling with my own mail server. Those single-instance mail servers with limited access to IP addresses in the early 2010s were smooth, but as more and more people worldwide started exploiting these servers,

we still get a lot of spam and marketing. Things were tough making sure your email did not land in the spam box. The choice between AWS WorkMail, a self-hosted mail server, and a cPanel mail server depends on several factors, including budget, technical expertise, scalability needs, and security requirements. AWS WorkMail is ideal for businesses seeking a scalable, secure, and managed email solution with minimal maintenance overhead. Self-hosted mail server is suitable for organizations with in-house technical expertise and specific customization

needs but involves higher costs and maintenance efforts. C-Panel mail server offers a balanced approach for small to medium-sized businesses that need a user-friendly interface and are comfortable with some level of maintenance, benefiting from the bundled hosting services. My main concerns were always the following. Security AWS WorkMail provides built-in security features, including encryption in transit and at rest, integration with AWS Key Management Service and compliance with various regulatory standards. Self-hosted mail server security depends entirely on the expertise of the administrator.

Requires configuration for encryption, spam filtering, and regular security updates to protect against threats. cPanel mail server. Offers security features, but the responsibility for implementing and maintaining security measures falls on the user. cPanel provides tools for SSL, TLS configuration, spam filtering, and antivirus, but proper setup and regular updates are essential. Then came AWS to the rescue, and since using AWS from 2015, things have been a breeze, except when there came a case of backing up my AWS account to move to a new account. Well, I have been searching over the internet to find a reliable solution because,

as far as we speak as of now, AWS WorkMail doesn't provide a straightforward way of backing up your email to your local computer or to S3. And it is understandable based on the security compliance, but still, I am still expecting that AWS should provide some way or a tool for that. Well while browsing, I did come across tools definitely paid, so I decided to take on the path of developing my own tool of it. After rigorous testing, based on my experience with AWS, 9 tenths problems always occur when one service is unable to communicate with the other service due to policy or IAM role issues. This is my contribution to all those people who are having a hard time taking backups of AWS WorkMail accounts.

How does the backup work? We created an IAM role in your account, giving the role access to export from AWS WorkMail, and then we attached a policy to the same role to allow it to access S3. We then create a KMS key, which is given access to the IAM role. The S3 bucket also needs access to the IAM role to function properly. Step 1. Configure AWS CLI first. Ensure that the AWS CLI is installed and configured with appropriate credentials. Open your terminal and run. Follow the prompts to set your AWS access key ID, secret access key, default region, and output format. Step 2. Setup required AWS resources. We need to create an IAM role, policies, an S3 bucket, and a KMS key. Save the following bash script as make the script executable and run it. Step 3. Write the backup script now. Let's

write the Python script to export mailboxes in batches of 10. Save the following script as, replace the placeholders with your actual AWS workmail organization ID, user IDTO email mappings, S3 bucket name, region, KMS key Rn, role name, and AWS account ID. Step 4. Run the backup script ensure you have Boto3 installed. Then, execute the Python script, import MailboxB following these steps, you have set up an automated system to backup your AWS work mail mailboxes, handling up to 10 concurrent export jobs. This solution ensures that your emails are securely stored in an S3 bucket, organized by user mail and date, and encrypted with a KMS key. This setup provides a robust and scalable backup strategy for your organization's email data.

GitHub repo. https://github.com. TH3 NOOBC0D3R. AWS WorkMail Backup. Tip feel free to get in touch on my LinkedIn. Also you can always buy me a coffee. https colon slash slash github.com. TH3 NOOBC 0D3R.

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