SharePoint Introduction

  • Article

 

Applies to: Forefront Security for SharePoint

Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies, a premier groupware solution, also permit viruses to proliferate rapidly throughout an organization. In SharePoint Products and Technologies, viruses can exist in documents saved in the various content sources, which may include public folders, workspaces, and Web sites, but traditional antivirus technology cannot monitor or scan the contents of these diverse storage units. SharePoint environments require an antivirus solution that can prevent the spread of viruses by scanning all documents in real time as they are accessed or stored while not impacting server performance. Microsoft Forefront™ Security for SharePoint (FSSP) is the solution for the SharePoint virus problem.

Forefront for SharePoint is designed to protect servers running Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2007. Forefront for SharePoint protects both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SharePoint , with identical functionality.

The Forefront for SharePoint Realtime scan reads the antivirus configurations stored in the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server or Windows SharePoint Services configuration database, and not in a separate Forefront for SharePoint database. This means that you can view the configuration data from either the Microsoft Forefront Server Security Administrator or from the SharePoint Administrator, but it can only be modified from the SharePoint Administrator.

Forefront for SharePoint also supports the Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console (FSSMC). FSSMC provides administrators with central installation and reporting functionality.

Third-party file-level antivirus programs

If you use a third-party file-level antivirus program on a server containing Forefront Security for SharePoint, you must ensure that the following program folders are not scanned in order to prevent corruption of FSSP:

  • <Drive:>\Program Files (x86)\ Microsoft Forefront Security
    (or whatever folder into which you installed FSSP)
  • The folder into which you installed Microsoft SharePoint Server

Additional documentation

The most current Microsoft Forefront for SharePoint documentation, including the "Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint Quick Start Guide" and the "Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint Best Practices Guide" is available at the Microsoft Security for SharePoint TechCenter.