Symantec V11 Anti Virus

[sukiw]

Does anyone have Symantec V11 anti virus software running on their Genesys servers? I understand that there were memory leaks associated with other anti virus software, are there any known issues with running V11 of Symantec. Can anyone give me the benefit of their experience on this?

[Dionysis]

Genesys' official standpoint is that virus software should not be installed on Genesys servers.

I have seen huge problems caused by anti-virus software locking essential files and bringing down entire environments so I'm inclined to agree with them.

In our environment we don't allow anti virus software to be installed on our Genesys servers, it is installed everywhere else to achieve "herd immunity" and that's it.  Never, ever, on the Genesys Servers.

[cavagnaro]

What?! From where do you get that "official statement"? No AV on servers?? The recommendation as I remember and saw Genesys guys doing it was to install all the platform first and then after all is ok, install the AV.
I never had a problem with AV software that is made for Servers, which doesn't work the same as for PCs.

[cavagnaro]

Official Statement:
[quote]
Firstly, we presently do not have any known issues with antivirus running with Genesys components. Genesys do not test with 3rd party software, and can not say for sure if this would introduce issues. There is a possibility that antivirus software could cause delays in your processing. We would recommend you exclude the GCTI and flexlm directory from being scanned as it could cause the Genesys software to run at a slower rate.



We would recommend that should you implement this, you fully deploy in a controlled, testing environment prior to production release.
[/quote]

[Dionysis]

I think that may have changed recently.

Last time I looked it up it said that while there were no known issues with running antivirus software it was not recommended.

Still, I wouldn't install AV on my Genesys Servers, it really isn't necessary. 

[cavagnaro]

Those recommendations are since 6.5...and no AV on servers? Why? Are they running on a secure platform like....windows? 

[Dionysis]

You're right Windows is not completely secure.  But viruses don't spontaneously appear.

Something else around it has to have it first, or someone has to inject data into the box to give it the virus. 

So if all servers other than your Genesys Servers have strong protection, and you have appropriate security measures in place, you don't need to have Anti Virus on everything.

In my environment we have only been hit by viruses twice in 7 years, both times they started at the desktop level and servers have never been infected, with or without AV installed.

[Genesyde]

I have Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 and SAV 10.2 running on different Genesys servers in our environment with no problems out of either of them.  Of course with SEP 11, you have to install it with the rules out of the box.  Don't try anything fancy with network threat protection or firewall rules and you should be fine.   I have had SEP 11 interfere with some of my other non-Genesys servers and we had to pull Network Threat Protection off of them to get them working again.

[kowari]

In the past, I have had an antivirus product (running on a genesys server) mistakenly detect a genesys TServer application as a virus, and helpfully clean it up and "fixed" the broken part.  That was not a fun night, especially when I had specifically told the server team to UNinstall all virus checkers on a particular list of servers.

I do NOT recommend putting virus checkers on your genesys servers - if left unchecked it can run your servers slow, reduce throughput and chew up unnecessary memory, and you will be left scratching your head as to why the performance of the box is down, or why the events from the switch are out of order (that one is common and difficult to find and prove).  Lock your servers down from internet access, restrict who can access them, and make sure that you achieve [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity]Herd Immunity[/url]

[cavagnaro]

May we ask what AV was that?

[kowari]

I cant remember, it was some time ago and I wasn't involved in maintaining or putting the software there.
I just cracked it completely when I figured what happened!  The virus software was newly installed and very quickly removed!

Call me paranoid, but I don't ever want to risk that again when we dont have to