# Email You need a working `sendmail` command 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. email notifications look like this:  ## configuration To edit `health_alarm_notify.conf` on your system run `/etc/netdata/edit-config health_alarm_notify.conf`. You can configure recipients in [`/etc/netdata/health_alarm_notify.conf`](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/99d44b7d0c4e006b11318a28ba4a7e7d3f9b3bae/conf.d/health_alarm_notify.conf#L101). You can also configure per role recipients [in the same file, a few lines below](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/99d44b7d0c4e006b11318a28ba4a7e7d3f9b3bae/conf.d/health_alarm_notify.conf#L313). Changes to this file do not require a Netdata restart. You can test your configuration by issuing the commands: ```sh # become user netdata sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata # send a test alarm /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test [ROLE] ``` Where `[ROLE]` is the role you want to test. The default (if you don't give a `[ROLE]`) is `sysadmin`. Note that in versions before 1.16, the plugins.d directory may be installed in a different location in certain OSs (e.g. under `/usr/lib/netdata`). You can always find the location of the alarm-notify.sh script in `netdata.conf`. ## Simple SMTP transport configuration If you want an alternative to `sendmail` in order to have a simple MTA configuration for sending emails and auth to an existing SMTP server, you can do the following: - Install `msmtp`. - Modify the `sendmail` path in `health_alarm_notify.conf` to point to the location of `msmtp`: ``` # The full path to the sendmail command. # If empty, the system $PATH will be searched for it. # If not found, email notifications will be disabled (silently). sendmail="/usr/bin/msmtp" ``` - Login as netdata : ```sh (sudo) su -s /bin/bash netdata ``` - Configure `~/.msmtprc` as shown [in the documentation](https://marlam.de/msmtp/documentation/). - Finally set the appropriate permissions on the `.msmtprc` file : ```sh chmod 600 ~/.msmtprc ``` [](<>)