<p>I have a kubernetes cluster that has applications running in an Istio service mesh. In one application I am trying to send an email using SMTP. How do I set up Istio rules to allow my applications to use my external SMTP server?</p>

<p>Initially I was getting an exception "Could not connect to SMTP host: in-v3.mailjet.com, port: 587, response: -1." as detailed <a href="https://github.com/istio/istio/issues/9379" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. After visiting this site I realized I needed to provide egress rules which I did as per below</p>

<pre><code>apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: ServiceEntry
metadata:
  name: mailjet
spec:
  hosts:
  - "in-v3.mailjet.com"
  location: MESH_EXTERNAL
  ports:
  - number: 587
    name: tls
    protocol: TLS
  resolution: DNS
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: mailjet
spec:
  hosts:
  - "*.mailjet.com"
  tls:
  - match:
    - port: 587
      sni_hosts:
      - "*.mailjet.com"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: "*.mailjet.com"
        port:
          number: 587
      weight: 100
</code></pre>

<p>I am no longer getting the "Could not connect to SMTP host" exception but I am getting a SocketTieoutException</p>

<pre><code>[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at org.jboss.threads.EnhancedQueueExecutor$ThreadBody.doRunTask(EnhancedQueueExecutor.java:1487)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at org.jboss.threads.EnhancedQueueExecutor$ThreadBody.run(EnhancedQueueExecutor.java:1378)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55) Caused by: javax.mail.MessagingException: Exception reading response;
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)   nested exception is:
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.readServerResponse(SMTPTransport.java:2460)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:2187)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.protocolConnect(SMTPTransport.java:740)
[0m[31m06:56:39,048 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:366)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:246)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:267)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at org.keycloak.email.DefaultEmailSenderProvider.send(DefaultEmailSenderProvider.java:138)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  ... 73 more
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55) Caused by: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.net.SocketInputStream.socketRead0(Native Method)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.net.SocketInputStream.socketRead(SocketInputStream.java:116)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(SocketInputStream.java:171)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(SocketInputStream.java:141)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.util.TraceInputStream.read(TraceInputStream.java:126)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.io.BufferedInputStream.fill(BufferedInputStream.java:246)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at java.io.BufferedInputStream.read(BufferedInputStream.java:265)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.util.LineInputStream.readLine(LineInputStream.java:106)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.readServerResponse(SMTPTransport.java:2440)
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [stderr] (default task-55)  ... 79 more
[0m[31m06:56:39,049 ERROR [org.keycloak.services.resources.admin.RealmAdminResource] (default task-55) Failed to send email
 javax.mail.MessagingException: Exception reading response;
  nested exception is:
        java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out
</code></pre>

<p>What do I need to do to successfully send an email within a Kubernetes cluster with an Istio service mesh?</p>

Khetho Mtembo
<p>After comparing with <a href="https://istio.io/blog/2018/egress-tcp/#mesh-external-service-entry-for-an-external-mysql-instance" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mesh-external service entry for an external MySQL instance</a> I managed to get this working using TCP as per below. I tried TLS with the IP address but that did not work. It would be nice however if I did not have to specify the IP address</p>

<pre><code>apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: ServiceEntry
metadata:
  name: mailjet
spec:
  hosts:
  - in-v3.mailjet.com
  addresses:
  - 104.199.96.85/32
  ports:
  - name: tls
    number: 587
    protocol: tcp
  location: MESH_EXTERNAL
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: mailjet
spec:
  hosts:
  - in-v3.mailjet.com
  tcp:
  - match:
    - port: 587
    route:
    - destination:
        host: in-v3.mailjet.com
        port:
          number: 587 
---          
</code></pre>
