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meta_yaml: "https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/src/health/notifications/email/metadata.yaml"
sidebar_label: "Email"
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# Email


<img src="https://netdata.cloud/img/email.png" width="150"/>


Send notifications via Email using Netdata's Agent alert notification feature, which supports dozens of endpoints, user roles, and more.


<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/maintained%20by-Netdata-%2300ab44" />

## Setup


### Prerequisites

#### 

- A working sendmail command is required for email alerts to work. Almost all MTAs provide a sendmail interface. Netdata sends all emails as user netdata, so make sure your sendmail works for local users.
- Access to the terminal where Netdata Agent is running
- When running Netdata with Docker Compose the emails are sent with `msmtp`, and you need a basic configuration for it to work. 
  
  - Add a [msmtprc](https://marlam.de/msmtp/msmtprc.txt) config file on your Docker root folder, and edit it according to your needs.
  - Link it into your Netdata container with this:
  
    ```yaml
        volumes:
          - /path/to/netdata-docker/msmtprc:/etc/msmtprc:ro
    ```
  
  - Update your container with `docker compose up -d`.
- If you use Gmail as the SMTP relay and your mail client cannot use Google's OAuth-based sign-in flow, configure your `msmtprc` file with `smtp.gmail.com`, port `587`, TLS enabled, and a Gmail [App Password](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833) instead of your regular account password. Set `EMAIL_SENDER` in `health_alarm_notify.conf` to the same Gmail address used in the `msmtprc` `from` field.



### Configuration

#### Options

The following options can be defined for this notification

<details open><summary>Config Options</summary>



| Option | Description | Default | Required |
|:-----|:------------|:--------|:---------:|
| EMAIL_SENDER | You can change `EMAIL_SENDER` to the email address sending the notifications. | netdata | no |
| SEND_EMAIL | Set `SEND_EMAIL` to YES, NO, or AUTO (enables email when sendmail is available). | AUTO | yes |
| [DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL](#option-default-recipient-email) | Set `DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL` to the email address you want the email to be sent by default. You can define multiple email addresses like this: `alarms@example.com` `systems@example.com`. | root | yes |

<a id="option-default-recipient-email"></a>
##### DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL

All roles will default to this variable if left unconfigured.
The `DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_CUSTOM` can be edited in the following entries at the bottom of the same file:
```text
role_recipients_email[sysadmin]="systems@example.com"
role_recipients_email[domainadmin]="domains@example.com"
role_recipients_email[dba]="databases@example.com systems@example.com"
role_recipients_email[webmaster]="marketing@example.com development@example.com"
role_recipients_email[proxyadmin]="proxy-admin@example.com"
role_recipients_email[sitemgr]="sites@example.com"
```



</details>



#### via File

The configuration file name for this integration is `health_alarm_notify.conf`.


You can edit the configuration file using the [`edit-config`](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#edit-configuration-files) script from the
Netdata [config directory](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#locate-your-config-directory).

```bash
cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config health_alarm_notify.conf
```

##### Examples

###### Basic Configuration



```yaml
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# email global notification options

EMAIL_SENDER="example@domain.com"
SEND_EMAIL="YES"
DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL="recipient@example.com"

```


## Troubleshooting

### Test Notification

You can run the following command by hand, to test alerts configuration:

```bash
# become user netdata
sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata

# enable debugging info on the console
export NETDATA_ALARM_NOTIFY_DEBUG=1

# send test alarms to sysadmin
/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test

# send test alarms to any role
/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test "ROLE"
```

Note that this will test _all_ alert mechanisms for the selected role.
