Set up external storage for email

Setting up external storage is a requirement for the email channel. You can use Cloud Storage or Amazon S3 as your external storage.

Set up Cloud Storage

To set up Cloud Storage for email, see Cloud Storage.

Be sure that your JSON service account key contains the following fields:

  • type: "service_account"

  • project_id

  • private_key_id

  • private_key

  • client_email

  • client_id

  • auth_uri

  • token_uri

  • auth_provider_x509_cert_url

  • Client_x509_cert_url

Set up Amazon S3 storage

When you set up authentication for Amazon S3, Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform) assumes an Identity and Access Management (IAM) role that you create in your AWS account. This role grants CCAI Platform the permissions required to access your Amazon S3 bucket.

The JSON service account key for this authentication method requires the following fields:

  • region: The AWS region where your Amazon S3 bucket is located—for example, "us-east-1".

  • role_arn: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the IAM role that CCAI Platform assumes. This ARN uniquely identifies the role that has been configured with the appropriate access policies.

  • external_id: An identifier that you provide when creating the trust policy for the role. CCAI Platform passes this ID when it requests to assume the role, ensuring that only the intended entity can do so.

To create an Amazon S3 JSON service account key, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your AWS account.

  2. Navigate to the IAM Dashboard.

  3. In the IAM Dashboard, select Roles, and then Create role.

  4. To configure the trust relationship, do the following:

    1. Select Another AWS account as the trusted entity.

    2. Enter the account ID of the entity that will be assuming the role.

    3. Optional: You can add an external ID for an additional layer of security.

  5. Set permissions, attach a policy that grants the role the necessary permissions for your Amazon S3 bucket. Google recommends that you use a policy with the least privilege necessary (for example, read and write access to a specific bucket) rather than full Amazon S3 access. The following are the required Amazon S3 permissions:

    • "s3:ListBucket",

    • "s3:GetObject",

    • "s3:PutObject",

    • "s3:DeleteObject"

  6. Follow the remaining prompts to create the role. You will be provided with a Role ARN.

  7. To create the JSON file, use the Role ARN and an external ID (if used) as in the following example:

    {
  "region": "YOUR-AWS-REGION",
  "role_arn": "YOUR_ROLE_ARN",
  "external_id": "YOUR_EXTERNAL_ID"
}

Configure email storage

If you are using Google Cloud as your data server, ensure that your Cloud Storage role is set to Storage Admin to prevent errors during setup. For more information, see IAM roles for Cloud Storage.

To configure your email storage, follow these steps:

  1. In the CCAI Platform portal, click Settings > Developer Settings. If you don't see the Settings menu, click Menu.

  2. Go to the Email Account Management section, and then click Manage Email Account.

  3. In the Data Management section, select a data storage duration.

  4. In the Data Server section, select either Google Cloud or Amazon S3. The same information is required for both options:

    • Bucket Name: Enter the exact name of your storage bucket.

    • Service Account Key (JSON file): Upload the JSON key file for your Google Cloud or Amazon S3 service account.

    • Folder Path: This path is automatically generated. When you link an email account, the system automatically creates a folder within your specified bucket.

  5. Click Test Connection to verify credentials and bucket details are correct.

  6. Click Save.

The system is configured to store email data from linked email accounts. You can expect the following behavior:

  • Automatic data sync: The system automatically syncs email data, including metadata and attachments, from your mail servers to the configured storage bucket every 45 seconds.

  • Connection monitoring: The system continuously monitors the connection to your email storage and email servers. If a connection can't be re-established for more than 30 minutes, an automated notification email is sent to the Admin users for your instance. The system also has an automatic retry logic to re-establish a failed connection.

Email retention policy

The storage duration that you set in the Data Management section represents the amount of time an email is held in your storage bucket. After that time, the email is deleted from storage. If you reply to an email thread after the set storage time (for example, storage time is set to 60 days, and you reply on day 61), then the entire email thread is retrieved from your IMAP server, including any attachments. However, emails older than three years aren't visible.