# Use serverless-plugin-aws-alerts plugin with existing SNS Topic

**URL:** <https://forum.serverless.com/t/use-serverless-plugin-aws-alerts-plugin-with-existing-sns-topic/17843>\
**Category:** Serverless Framework\
**Tags:** aws, lambda\
**Created:** [November 10, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/use-serverless-plugin-aws-alerts-plugin-with-existing-sns-topic/17843 "2022-11-10T14:56:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jdaniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b782af/32.png) [@jdaniels](https://forum.serverless.com/u/jdaniels)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.serverless.com/t/use-serverless-plugin-aws-alerts-plugin-with-existing-sns-topic/17843/1 "2022-11-10T14:56:10Z")

</div>

I’m trying to set up email alerts for my Lambda errors (…invocations, etc). I can update my `.yml` file to create a new `topic` and this works OK:

```nohighlight
custom:
  alerts:
    stages:
      - production
      - dev
      - development
    dashboards: true
    topics:
      alarm:
        topic: ${self:service}-${sls:stage}-alerts-alarm
        notifications:
          - protocol: email
            endpoint: myemail@domain.com
    alarms:
      - functionErrors
      - functionThrottles
      - functionInvocations
      - functionDuration

```

I receive emails as expected.

But when I try to use an existing SNS Topic, by following the SLS [docs](https://www.serverless.com/plugins/serverless-plugin-aws-alerts#sns-topics), nothing seems to happen. I’ve:

1. Created a Topic in the SNS console
2. Updated the `.yml` as per the docs:

```nohighlight
custom:
  alerts:
    stages:
      - production
      - dev
      - development
    topics:
      alarm:
        topic: arn:aws:sns:${aws:region}:${aws:accountId}:myp-${sls:stage}-alerts
    alarms:
      - functionErrors
      - functionThrottles
      - functionInvocations
      - functionDuration

```

The deploy works fine, but I don’t get any emails when I trigger errors. What do I need to do?