Complete Guide to Azure Email Service Configuration and Setup

Configuring and setting up Azure Email Service is a straightforward process that requires some basic information.

To get started, you'll need to create an Azure account if you haven't already.

First, go to the Azure portal and sign in with your account credentials.

The Azure portal is where you'll manage all your Azure services, including Azure Email Service.

You can create a new Azure Email Service by clicking on the "Create a resource" button and searching for "Azure Email Service".

This will guide you through the setup process, where you'll need to provide some basic information such as your domain name and email address.

Domain Configuration is a crucial step in setting up your Azure Email Service. To create an email communication services domain, you need to tell Azure that you want to use the provided domain, which is in the format @{identifier}.azurecomm.net, where identifier is a random placeholder.

You can do this by opening the Email Communication Services resource and clicking on Provision domains on the sidebar. The domain will be deployed in the background, which can take a few minutes.

Azure provides a free out-of-the-box domain for emails, but you can also use a custom domain that you already own. To add a custom domain, you need to verify your domain ownership by adding a TXT record to your Domain's DNS hosting provider.

Here are the steps to add a custom domain:

Once your domain is verified, you can configure sender authentication for your custom domain by adding SPF and DKIM records to authenticate your domains in Azure Email Communication Service.

To create an Email Communication Services resource, you'll need to follow these steps. First, log in to your Azure Portal and select Create a resource. Next, fill in the required information in the basic tab, including your Azure Subscription, Resource Group, and name for the resource.

You'll also need to select your preferred Data location, which must be the United States for this to work. It's essential to choose the correct Data location to ensure smooth operation of your Email Communication Services resource.

To provision domains, open the Email Communication Services resource and click on Provision domains on the sidebar. The domain will be deployed in the background, which can take a few minutes.

Here's a summary of the required fields to fill in when creating the Email Communication Services resource:

After completing the required fields, click Review + create to proceed with the deployment. It will take some time to complete the deployment, and once it's finished, you can click Go to Resource to access the Email Communication Services Overview page.

Connecting your domain to Azure services is a crucial step in setting up a reliable email communication system. To do this, you need to provision a domain in the Email Communication Services resource.

You can add a custom domain to your Email Communication Service resource by navigating to the Provision domains section. From there, you can click on your provisioned domain to access the Domain Overview page. This is where you can configure your MailFrom addresses and sender authentication.

To connect your email domain to the Communication Service Resource, you'll need to select your verified domains and click on Connect. This will link your email domain to the Azure Communication Service Resource.

Administering multiple domains and email accounts from a single location is made easy with Azure SMTP. This centralized management feature allows you to monitor email delivery performance and troubleshoot issues quickly.

Here's a step-by-step guide to connecting your email domain to the Communication Service Resource:

1. Open the Communication Services resource and click Domains under Email on the sidebar.

2. Choose the Email Service and Verified Domain that you set up earlier.

3. Click Connect to link your email domain to the Azure Communication Service Resource.

Once you've connected your email domain, you can retrieve the connection string of the Communication Services resource and the MailFrom address from the Email Communication Services Domain resource.

Sending emails with Azure Email Service is a straightforward process. You can use the .NET SDKs, including C#, JavaScript, Java, and Python, to send emails.

To get started, you'll need to install the Azure.Communication.Email package, which is available for different languages. However, the package doesn't appear in Visual Studio's package manager at the time of writing, even when the prerelease box is checked.

You can also use System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient to send emails. This method requires you to create an SmtpClient using the Azure Communication Services host URL and Smtp Authentication credentials, create a MailMessage, and then send using the SmtpClient's Send method.

Here are the steps to send an email using System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient:

You'll also need to have an Azure account with an active subscription, an Azure Communication Email Resource created and ready with a provisioned domain, an active Azure Communication Services Resource connected with Email Domain and a Connection String, and Smtp credentials created using an Entra application with access to the Azure Communication Services Resource.

If you're using Java Spring boot to send emails, you can add the Azure SDK dependency in your Maven pom.xml file and create a Java class to send emails using Azure Communication Service.

Azure SMTP Relay also offers Sender Authentication Support, including ARC (Authenticated Received Chain), SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) support for both Azure-managed and custom domains.

Here are some benefits of using Azure SMTP for email delivery:

To optimize email delivery using Azure SMTP, you'll need to obtain the public IP address, check for verification, select the connector, update DNS, and send a test email.