Running Antivirus Software on the DPM Server

  • Article

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

To prevent file conflicts between DPM and antivirus software, on the DPM server, disable real-time monitoring by the antivirus software of the following directories in the DPM program files:

  • \XSD

  • \Temp\MTA

DPM is compatible with most popular antivirus software products. However, antivirus products can affect DPM performance and, if not configured properly, can cause data corruption of replicas and recovery points. To mitigate these issues, consider taking the following actions:

  • Disable real-time monitoring of dpmra.exe on the DPM server.

    To minimize performance degradation, disable antivirus real-time monitoring of replicas and transfer logs for all protected volumes by disabling real-time monitoring of the DPM process dpmra.exe, which is located in the folder Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin.

    Real-time monitoring of replicas degrades performance because it causes the antivirus software to scan the replicas each time DPM synchronizes with the protected server and to scan all affected files each time DPM applies changes to the replicas. The problem is resolved when you disable the feature for the replicas. For information about configuring real-time monitoring based on process name, see your antivirus product documentation.

  • Disable real-time monitoring of csc.exe on the DPM server.

    If you experience degraded performance while using DPM Administrator Console, disable real-time monitoring of the csc.exe process, which is located in the folder Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe. The csc.exe process is the C# compiler. Real-time monitoring of the csc.exe process can degrade performance because it causes the antivirus software to scan files that the csc.exe process emits when it generates XML messages. For information about configuring real-time monitoring based on process name, see your antivirus product documentation.

  • Delete infected files on protected servers and the DPM server.

    To prevent data corruption of replicas and recovery points, configure the antivirus software to delete infected files rather than automatically cleaning or quarantining them. Automatic cleaning and quarantining can result in data corruption because these processes cause the antivirus software to modify files, making changes that DPM cannot detect.

    Whenever DPM attempts to synchronize a replica that has been modified by another program, data corruption of the replica and recovery points can result. Configuring the antivirus software to delete infected files resolves this problem. For information about configuring your antivirus software to delete infected files, see the documentation for your antivirus software.

    Important

    You must run a manual synchronization with consistency check job each time that the antivirus software deletes a file from the replica, even though the replica will not be marked as inconsistent.

See Also

Concepts

Applying Operating System Updates to the DPM Server
Using Windows Maintenance Tools on the DPM Server