diff --git a/api/.gitignore b/api/.gitignore
index 5a72abd47..8cf51ee60 100644
--- a/api/.gitignore
+++ b/api/.gitignore
@@ -83,7 +83,6 @@ wheels/
 .installed.cfg
 *.egg
 MANIFEST
-Pipfile
 Pipfile.lock
 
 # PyInstaller
@@ -144,7 +143,7 @@ celerybeat-schedule
 
 # Environments
 .env
-.venv
+.venv/*
 env/
 venv/
 ENV/
diff --git a/api/.gitkeep b/api/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b694934fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/.gitkeep
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.venv
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/api/Pipfile b/api/Pipfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..174b668fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/Pipfile
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+[[source]]
+url = "https://pypi.org/simple"
+verify_ssl = true
+name = "pypi"
+
+[packages]
+requests = "==2.31.0"
+urllib3 = "==1.26.16"
+boto3 = "==1.26.148"
+pyjwt = "==2.7.0"
+psycopg2-binary = "==2.9.6"
+elasticsearch = "==8.8.0"
+jira = "==3.5.1"
+fastapi = "==0.96.0"
+uvicorn = {version = "==0.22.0", extras = ["standard"]}
+python-decouple = "==3.8"
+pydantic = {version = "==1.10.8", extras = ["email"]}
+apscheduler = "==3.10.1"
+redis = "==4.5.5"
+
+[dev-packages]
+
+[requires]
+python_version = "3.11"
diff --git a/api/chalicelib/utils/__init__.py b/api/chalicelib/utils/__init__.py
index e69de29bb..0744a56a2 100644
--- a/api/chalicelib/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/api/chalicelib/utils/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+from . import helper
+import logging
+from decouple import config
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=config("LOGLEVEL", default=logging.INFO))
+
+if helper.has_smtp():
+    logging.info("valid SMTP configuration found")
+else:
+    logging.info("no SMTP configuration found or SMTP validation failed")
diff --git a/api/chalicelib/utils/helper.py b/api/chalicelib/utils/helper.py
index 4ae0bd113..1afc2e39e 100644
--- a/api/chalicelib/utils/helper.py
+++ b/api/chalicelib/utils/helper.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import logging
 import math
 import random
 import re
@@ -8,6 +9,7 @@ from urllib.parse import urlparse
 from decouple import config
 
 import schemas
+from chalicelib.utils import smtp
 from chalicelib.utils.TimeUTC import TimeUTC
 
 
@@ -264,8 +266,25 @@ def __decimal_limit(value, limit):
     return value / factor
 
 
+VALID_SMTP = None
+SMTP_ERROR = None
+
+
 def has_smtp():
-    return config("EMAIL_HOST") is not None and len(config("EMAIL_HOST")) > 0
+    global VALID_SMTP, SMTP_ERROR
+    if SMTP_ERROR is not None:
+        logging.error("!!! SMTP error found, disabling SMTP configuration:")
+        logging.error(SMTP_ERROR)
+
+    if VALID_SMTP is not None:
+        return VALID_SMTP
+
+    if config("EMAIL_HOST") is not None and len(config("EMAIL_HOST")) > 0:
+        VALID_SMTP, SMTP_ERROR = smtp.check_connexion()
+        return VALID_SMTP
+    else:
+        logging.info("no SMTP configuration found")
+    return False
 
 
 def old_search_payload_to_flat(values):
diff --git a/api/chalicelib/utils/smtp.py b/api/chalicelib/utils/smtp.py
index a4710b42f..03e812a1f 100644
--- a/api/chalicelib/utils/smtp.py
+++ b/api/chalicelib/utils/smtp.py
@@ -45,3 +45,43 @@ class SMTPClient:
         if self.server is None:
             return
         self.server.quit()
+
+    def test_configuration(self):
+        # check server connexion
+        try:
+            status = self.server.noop()[0]
+            if not (status == 250):
+                raise Exception(f"SMTP connexion error, status:{status}")
+        except Exception as e:  # smtplib.SMTPServerDisconnected
+            logging.error(
+                f'!! SMTP connexion error to {config("EMAIL_HOST")}:{config("EMAIL_PORT", cast=int)}')
+            logging.error(e)
+            return False, e
+
+        # check authentication
+        try:
+            self.__enter__()
+            self.__exit__()
+        except Exception as e:
+            logging.error(f'!! SMTP authentication error to {config("EMAIL_HOST")}:{config("EMAIL_PORT", cast=int)}')
+            logging.error(e)
+            return False, e
+
+        return True, None
+
+
+def check_connexion():
+    # check SMTP host&port
+    import socket
+    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+    sock.settimeout(config("EMAIL_CHECK_TIMEOUT", cast=int, default=5))
+    result = sock.connect_ex((config("EMAIL_HOST"), config("EMAIL_PORT", cast=int)))
+    sock.close()
+    if not (result == 0):
+        error = f"""!! SMTP {config("EMAIL_HOST")}:{config("EMAIL_PORT", cast=int)} is unreachable
+f'please make sure the host&port are correct, and the SMTP protocol is authorized on your server."""
+        logging.error(error)
+        sock.close()
+        return False, error
+
+    return SMTPClient().test_configuration()
diff --git a/ee/api/.gitignore b/ee/api/.gitignore
index 8f88e3b1e..98b09f866 100644
--- a/ee/api/.gitignore
+++ b/ee/api/.gitignore
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ celerybeat-schedule
 
 # Environments
 .env
-.venv
+.venv/*
 env/
 venv/
 ENV/
@@ -175,7 +175,6 @@ SUBNETS.json
 chalicelib/.config
 chalicelib/saas
 README/*
-Pipfile
 Pipfile.lock
 
 .local/*
diff --git a/ee/api/.gitkeep b/ee/api/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b694934fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ee/api/.gitkeep
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.venv
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ee/api/Pipfile b/ee/api/Pipfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ceab80dcb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ee/api/Pipfile
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+[[source]]
+url = "https://pypi.org/simple"
+verify_ssl = true
+name = "pypi"
+
+[packages]
+requests = "==2.31.0"
+urllib3 = "==1.26.16"
+boto3 = "==1.26.148"
+pyjwt = "==2.7.0"
+psycopg2-binary = "==2.9.6"
+elasticsearch = "==8.8.0"
+jira = "==3.5.1"
+fastapi = "==0.96.0"
+python-decouple = "==3.8"
+apscheduler = "==3.10.1"
+python3-saml = "==1.15.0"
+python-multipart = "==0.0.6"
+redis = "==4.5.5"
+azure-storage-blob = "==12.16.0"
+uvicorn = {version = "==0.22.0", extras = ["standard"]}
+pydantic = {version = "==1.10.8", extras = ["email"]}
+clickhouse-driver = {version = "==0.2.5", extras = ["lz4"]}
+
+[dev-packages]
+
+[requires]
+python_version = "3.11"