---
title: "Adding Email Handler on Sensu Server"
slug: "fortanix-dsm-for-adding-email-handler-to-sensu-server"
updated: 2026-04-01T07:29:20Z
published: 2026-02-18T13:25:28Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.fortanix.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Adding Email Handler on Sensu Server

## 1.0 Introduction

The purpose of this article is to describe the procedure for adding an email handler to a Sensu server to send email notifications or alerts when a check is executed or reaches a warning or critical status for a Fortanix Data Security Manager (DSM) instance.

## 2.0 Terminology References

- SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
- VM - Virtual Machine

## 3.0 Prerequisites

Before configuring the email handler, ensure the following:

- The Sensu server is set up and monitoring the Fortanix DSM targets.

## 4.0 Configure Email Handler on Sense VM

This section explains how to configure the email handler on the Sensu VM.

Perform the following steps:

1. Run the following command to navigate to the `Monitoring-Server-Artifacts` folder on the Sensu VM created in “*Section 5.1: Setting Up Sensu Server” in the*[*Fortanix DSM with Sensu Monitoring and Alerting*](https://support.fortanix.com/v1/docs/sensu-monitoring-and-alerting#51-setting-up-sensu-server)*guide*:

```plaintext
cd Monitoring-Server-Artifacts
```
2. Run the following command to execute the `add_handlers.sh` script to add an email handler:

```plaintext
./add_handlers.sh
```

When prompted, select Y for email handler:

```plaintext
Do you want to create email handler ? (Y/N): Y
Creating email handler
Specify From email address : 
Specify To email address : 
Specify SMTP server address :
Does SMTP server allow insecure connection (unauthenticated on port 25)? (Y/N) : 
Specify SMPT username : 
Specify SMTP user password : 
Specify SMTP port (default 587) :
Created
Attaching email handler to all checks
```
3. Verify the email handler configuration from Sensu Web user interface (UI):

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/c3bd85d2-4ad8-4d85-9f60-f1c168a3aad9/Images/Documentation/image (58).png)

**Figure 1: Select the Email handler**

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/c3bd85d2-4ad8-4d85-9f60-f1c168a3aad9/Images/Documentation/image (57).png)

**Figure 2: Email handler specification**

## 5.0 Configure Keepalive Handler

This section explains how the keepalive handler monitors the status of the `sensu-agent` service on each node.

### 5.1 Configure Keepalive Handler on Sense VM

Perform the following steps on the Sensu VM:

1. Run the following command to navigate to the `Monitoring-Server-Artifacts` folder in Sensu VM created in “*Section 5.1: Setting Up Sensu Server” in the*[*Fortanix DSM with Sensu Monitoring and Alerting*](https://support.fortanix.com/v1/docs/sensu-monitoring-and-alerting#51-setting-up-sensu-server)*guide*:

```plaintext
cd Monitoring-Server-Artifacts
```
2. Run the following command to create the `email-keepalive-handler.yml` file:

```plaintext
 vi email-keepalive-handler.yml
```
3. Add the following configuration to the `email-keepalive-handler.yml` file:

```plaintext
type: Handler
api_version: core/v2
metadata:
  name: keepalive
  namespace: default
spec:
  handlers:
  - email
  type: set
  filters:
  - is_incident
  - not_silenced
```
4. Run the following command to create the keepalive handler for email handler:

```plaintext
sensuctl create -f email-keepalive-handler.yml
```
5. Run the following commands to reload the `systemd` manager configuration:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```
6. Run the following commands to restart the `sensu-agent` service:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl restart sensu-agent
```
7. Run the following command to verify the status of the `sensu-agent` service:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl status sensu-agent
```

### 5.2 Apply Configuration Changes on Fortanix DSM Node

Perform the following steps on each Fortanix DSM node where the `sensu-agent` service is configured:

1. Add the following values in the `/etc/sensu/agent.yml` file:

```plaintext
keepalive-warning-timeout: 60
keepalive-critical-timeout: 90
```
2. Run the following command to reload the `systemd` manager configuration:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```
3. Run the following command to restart the `sensu-agent` service:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl restart sensu-agent
```
4. Run the following command to verify the status of the `sensu-agent` service:

```plaintext
sudo systemctl status sensu-agent
```