Should you run antivirus software on a server

On some, not all. All file servers, or any server that workstations can access files on, get AV installed. Pure application servers do not. Run AV on every host you have: Server or Desktop. Keep in mind not all AV solutions play well with Servers. Some vendors require specific directory exclusions. I have had issues with a particular provider on Domain Controllers and another provider with Exchange.

Have been running Webroot on everything for the past three years and have had zero issues on servers. If the server has any access to any other devices so any server then it should have some antivirus software.

You don't want to be the guy that closed all windows but left a door open when a storm comes. To continue this discussion, please ask a new question.

Get answers from your peers along with millions of IT pros who visit Spiceworks. Do you run Anti-Virus software on your servers? If not, why? If so, why? Cheers Jon. Popular Topics in Antivirus. Spiceworks Help Desk. The help desk software for IT. Track users' IT needs, easily, and with only the features you need. Learn More ». Pure Capsaicin. Neally This person is a verified professional.

Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional. Jon Apr 5, at UTC. Thai Pepper. Let me ask you that, Why would you say you would not install it? Jon wrote: Well I guess that one argument would be that AV is on Workstations because general users logon to them and can connect USB drives or open dodgy emails etc. G This person is a verified professional. True, but servers are exposed to workstations.

Nothing is worse than AV trying to dig into mail databases and grab viruses I have clamwin and do a weekly scan on my file server which doesn't see much activity. I had Symantec AV previously and the scan on file access was killing performance. I use Trend Micro for most of my clients.

The Worry Free Business Security 5. The client gets installed automatically for the first server, and is an easy install for any others. The Real Time will hopefully not be needed very often, but the sweeps I select for weekly or daily, after hours, can find things that might have been missed previously i. The performance hit is rare, and the alternative is a nightmare, especially for a shared resource like a server. Although, I have met a few admins who think nothing of re-mastering a box from a backup image But I'd rather spend my time doing other things.

So if your server admin is "dumb" then you DO need antivirus. If you have a REAL server admin - then he will never run any file on the server that does not come from trusted source. Admin can always scan a file on his own machine.

If a server is set up correctly - then it can NOT be affected by virus, even if there is a virus on it's fileshare. So for me it does not make any sense having antivirus on the server. For exchange - executable files should be forbiden. Have not seen virus in my email for last 6 years. It is always better to have proper security set up on the client side, than slowing down the server just for the sake of pretending that it will be any safer. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Do you run antivirus on your Windows servers? Ask Question. Asked 12 years, 8 months ago. Active 10 years, 2 months ago. Viewed 93k times. After reading the replies, not sure there is a "correct" answer.

I'd like to see opinions on web servers too — Mauricio Scheffer. Active Oldest Votes. Yes, although for the most part they are configured to scan for viruses overnight with real-time file protection disabled, the exceptions are: File servers - Set to scan on write only. Full nightly scan. Sharepoint - No current anti-virus, waiting on Sophos for SharePoint to come out of beta. Exchange - Exchange specific anti-virus soloution. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services.

Privacy policy. DPM is compatible with most popular antivirus software products. We recommend the following steps to avoid conflicts:. Disable real-time monitoring — disable real-time monitoring by the antivirus software for the following:. Replica and transfer logs — To do this, disable real-time monitoring of dpmra.

Real-time monitoring degrades performance because the antivirus software scans the replicas each time DPM synchronizes with the protected server, and scans all affected files each time DPM applies changes to the replicas. Administrator console — To avoid an impact on performance, disable real-time monitoring of the csc.