# No success setting up notifications

**URL:** <https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536>\
**Category:** crowdsec\
**Created:** [April 30, 2025, 10:41am UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536 "2025-04-30T10:41:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doinq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@doinq](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/doinq)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 10:41am UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/1 "2025-04-30T10:41:50Z")

</div>

```auto
Package: crowdsec
Version: 1.6.8

```

Trying to set up email notification.

```auto
cscli notifications list
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Active Name Type Profile name                                      
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ✔️ email_default email default_ip_remediation, default_range_remediation 
 🚫 file_default file                                                        
 🚫 http_default http                                                        
 🚫 sentinel_default sentinel                                                    
 🚫 slack_default slack                                                       
 🚫 splunk_default splunk

```

When running

```auto
systemctl restart crowdsec

```

I get

```auto
Job for crowdsec.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status crowdsec.service" and "journalctl -xeu crowdsec.service" for details.

```

```auto
journalctl -xeu crowdsec.service
...
Apr 30 11:58:53 <masked> crowdsec[26464]: FATAL api server init: unable to run plugin broker: while loading plugin: while configuring email_default: rpc error: code = Unknown desc = yaml: unmarshal errors:
Apr 30 11:58:53 <masked> crowdsec[26464]: line 18: cannot unmarshal !!str `markus....` into []string
Apr 30 11:58:53 <masked> systemd[1]: crowdsec.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
...

```

I tried to use none, single or double quotes to set the appropriate values in

```auto
/etc/crowdsec/notifications/email.yaml

```

Nothing helped.

Any reply would be greatly appreciated.  
thx

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doinq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@doinq](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/doinq)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/2 "2025-04-30T11:06:12Z")

</div>

fyi

```auto
cscli notifications test email_default
DEBU[0000] starting plugin args="[/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email]" path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] plugin started path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email pid=32476
DEBU[0000] waiting for RPC address path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] using plugin version=1
TRAC[0000] waiting for stdio data                       
Error: while loading plugin: while configuring email_default: rpc error: code = Unknown desc = yaml: unmarshal errors:
  line 18: cannot unmarshal !!str `markus....` into []string

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iiAmLoz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/discourse.crowdsec.net/iiamloz/32/386_2.png) [@iiAmLoz](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/iiAmLoz)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/3 "2025-04-30T13:20:26Z")

</div>

seem your `email.yaml` is incorrect, it seems the contact addresses is a string when it needs to be an array of strings like:

wrong

```yaml
receiver_emails: "myemail@domain.tld"

```

right

```yaml
receiver_emails:
  - "myemail@domain.tld"

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doinq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@doinq](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/doinq)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/4 "2025-04-30T14:53:29Z")

</div>

thx @iiAmLoz for taking time

This does it 🙂

CrowdSec starts without errors.

But when testing it throws

```auto
cscli notifications test email_default
DEBU[0000] starting plugin args="[/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email]" path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] plugin started path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email pid=53410
DEBU[0000] waiting for RPC address path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] using plugin version=1
TRAC[0000] waiting for stdio data                       
INFO registered plugin email_default              
INFO pluginTomb dying                             
ERROR rpc error: code = Unknown desc = Mail Error: SMTP Connection timed out error, retry num 1 plugin=email_default
ERROR rpc error: code = Unknown desc = Mail Error: SMTP Connection timed out plugin:=email_default
INFO killing all plugins                          
DEBU[0011] received EOF, stopping recv loop err="rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = error reading from server: EOF"
INFO[0011] plugin process exited path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email pid=53410
DEBU[0011] plugin exited

```

cheers

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iiAmLoz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/discourse.crowdsec.net/iiamloz/32/386_2.png) [@iiAmLoz](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/iiAmLoz)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/5 "2025-04-30T16:43:18Z")

</div>

That error is stating the email setting are not working for connection timeout, ensure the settings you are using are correct such as hostname and port

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![doinq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@doinq](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/u/doinq)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://discourse.crowdsec.net/t/no-success-setting-up-notifications/2536/6 "2025-04-30T18:34:47Z")

</div>

thx @iiAmLoz

Now working as expected

```auto
cscli notifications test email_default
DEBU[0000] starting plugin args="[/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email]" path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] plugin started path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email pid=69993
DEBU[0000] waiting for RPC address path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email
DEBU[0000] using plugin version=1
TRAC[0000] waiting for stdio data                       
INFO registered plugin email_default              
INFO pluginTomb dying                             
INFO[0000] sent email to [masked] @module=email-plugin.email_default
INFO killing all plugins                          
DEBU[0000] received EOF, stopping recv loop err="rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = error reading from server: EOF"
INFO[0000] plugin process exited path=/usr/lib/crowdsec/plugins/notification-email pid=69993
DEBU[0000] plugin exited

```