Anti-Virus Software on SQL Server

Question

Anti-Virus Software on SQL Server

ppreston

Mr or Mrs. 500

Points: 588
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July 19, 2005 at 5:52 pm

#93523

Does anyone have any suggestions on running Anti-Virus Software on your SQL Server? Do you think this is a good or bad idea and your reasoning.

Thanks in Advance.

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David Webb-CDS SSCoach Points: 17398 More actions · Answer 1

I've heard some horror stories of anti-virus software continuously trying to scan the database filegroups because they were constantly changing. I'm sure there are filters you can use to prevent that, but my best recommendation would be to refrain from using the server for anything but SQL Server, strictly control the access, and keep your patches current.

And then again, I might be wrong ...
David Webb

Azzam Alkadi SSChasing Mays Points: 640 More actions · Answer 2

We have all our servers running SQL with Virus check software. We only enabled scanning on incoming files, and so far no performance issues.

bledu SSChampion Points: 12335 More actions · Answer 3

I think it is a good idea to have the anti-virus because the alternative will not be good when your svr is attacked.

i have anti-virus on my dev server, and no problems thus far except have to buy more ram.

Everything you can imagine is real.

laker_42 SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4785 More actions · Answer 4

We have anti-virus running on all of our production SQL Servers. You need to make sure to exclude the database & log files from the anti-virus scans. Doing that, you shouldn't have any issues.

HTH,

John

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114562 More actions · Answer 5

I talked about this topic in an article:

SQL Server Security: Dealing with Anti-Virus Programs

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

Linda Johanning SSCertifiable Points: 6727 More actions · Answer 6

Due to company policy all of our servers have an anti-virus software program running on all files and folders. The only time I've seen an issue on a database server is when a couple of test databases were set to auto close and they ended up getting corrupted. I've never used auto close since and things have been fine 🙂

Linda

Geoffrey Wrigg SSC Eights! Points: 945 More actions · Answer 7

Thanks to Preston for asking the question and to Brian for the informative article. Our company is in the process of upgrading our antivirus setup, and one change is that we're moving the antivirus server component from the main network server (which is also our SQL server) to a regular workstation on the network. I was wondering about the ramifications of setting our SQL Server box up as an antivirus client. Brian's article was exactly the info I needed. Thank you!

Rudyx - the Doctor SSC-Forever Points: 43695 More actions · Answer 8

We use Trend on all of our servers (200+). 25+ of them are SQL Servers and we have had no issues whatsoever (We also implemented by default Brian's Do's/Don'ts).

RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."