Troubleshooting NIS signature update failure

  • Article

Updated: February 1, 2011

Applies To: Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG)

This topic contains troubleshooting information for issues that might prevent the update of NIS signatures, according to the alert that is displayed in the Forefront TMG Management console.

  • For a flowchart showing how to determine whether the issue is caused by a failure to update NIS signatures, see NIS troubleshooting flow.

  • Alerts are displayed on the Alerts tab of the Monitoring node. For information, see Monitoring alerts.

The following sections provide instructions for resolving issues indicated by these alerts:

  • Update Failed

  • NIS Signature Set Loading Failed

  • NIS Selected Signature Set Loading Failure

  • Update Center - Updates Not Installed

  • Update Center Required Service Not Started

Update Failed

Forefront TMG cannot check for, download, or install definition updates.

Cause

An error occurred during an attempt to check for, download, or install, definition updates on the Forefront TMG server.

Resolution

To determine the cause of this issue, do one or more of the following:

  • Test the connectivity between the Forefront TMG server and Microsoft Update. For information, see Configuring connectivity to update sites.

  • Verify the Forefront TMG WinHTTP proxy settings.

  • Use the error code in the error page for further investigation.

NIS Signature Set Loading Failed

NIS failed to load the signature set file on the Forefront TMG server.

Cause

No signature set file is found on the Forefront TMG server, or the file is corrupted.

Resolution

  1. In the Forefront TMG Management console, in the tree, click the Update Center node.

  2. On the Definition Updates tab, right-click Network Inspection System, and then click Override Current Definitions.

NIS Selected Signature Set Loading Failure

Forefront TMG failed to load the selected signature set file.

Cause

Forefront TMG is configured to use a specific signature set file, which could not be loaded to the Forefront TMG server. Instead, NIS will use the latest signature set.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, configure Forefront TMG to use the latest signature set file, instead of a specific file, as follows:

  1. In the Forefront TMG Management console, in the tree, click the Intrusion Prevention node.

  2. On the Tasks tab, click Configure Properties.

  3. On the Definition Updates tab of the Network Inspection (NIS) Properties dialog box, click the Version Control button, and then, in the Signature Set Version Control dialog box, clear the Select the NIS signature set you want to activate check box.

Update Center - Updates Not Installed

Forefront TMG did not install NIS signature set updates during the period specified in the alert; as a result, Forefront TMG is not updated with the latest signatures.

Cause

Forefront TMG is not configured to enable automatic updates.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, follow one of these procedures:

  • Enabling automatic NIS signature updates

  • Installing updates manually

Enabling automatic NIS signature updates

  1. In the Forefront TMG Management console, in the tree, click the Intrusion Prevention node.

  2. On the Tasks tab, click Configure Properties.

  3. On the Definition Updates tab of the Network Inspection (NIS) Properties dialog box, under Automatic definition update action, select Check for and install definitions (recommended).

  4. Under Response policy for new signatures, select Microsoft default policy (recommended).

Installing updates manually

  1. In the Forefront TMG Management console, in the tree, click the Update Center node.

  2. On the Definition Updates tab, right-click Network Inspection System, and then click Check for and Install New Definitions.

Update Center Required Service Not Started

Forefront TMG Update Center could not obtain the latest updates from the Forefront TMG server.

Cause

The Microsoft Forefront TMG Job Scheduler service is not started.

Resolution

  1. In the Forefront TMG Management console, in the tree, click the Monitoring node.

  2. On the Services tab, right-click Microsoft Forefront TMG Job Scheduler, and then click Start.

Concepts

Managing definition updates for Forefront TMG
Troubleshooting NIS