# 3.3.4 Set up an SMTP server for OpenCRVS monitoring alerts

We use [Elastalert](https://elastalert.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), in tandem with ElasticSearch and Kibana to monitor the health of the OpenCRVS stack in production.

In order for OpenCRVS to alert your Technical System Administrator of any memory or hardware issues, we have set up email notifications as the Elastalert option. Therefore you should have an [SMTP service](https://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-smtp-service-providers-with-high-email-deliverability/) setup. You can read more about monitoring OpenCRVS [here](https://github.com/opencrvs/documentation/blob/release-v1.3.0/setup/7.-monitoring).

[Google offers SMTP services for free](https://kinsta.com/blog/gmail-smtp-server/) linked to a Gmail account, but there are countless other paid for SMTP services such as [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/) or [Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com/).

You will need to take note of your **SMTP host, port, username,** **password** & your **Technical System Administrator's email address** for the entering as Github Secrets in [section 3.3.6 Deploy](https://documentation.opencrvs.org/v1.3/setup/3.-installation/3.3-set-up-a-server-hosted-environment/3.3.6-deploy-automated-and-manual). We have hardcoded the service to use SMTP **SSL by default**.