Virus Scanning Folders
Introduction
This article includes information about folders that may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning in Activate. These folders may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning when you use a file-level antivirus program on the Activate server. If these folders are not excluded, you may see unexpected behavior. For example, you may see performance issues or receive random "access denied" error messages.
The exact paths and folders depend upon your server environment and version.
NOTE: The Drive placeholder represents the drive letter in which you have installed Activate Server. Typically, this drive letter is C.
- Drive:\Program Files\Activate If you do not want to exclude the whole "Activate" folder from antivirus scanning, you can exclude only the following two folders:
- Drive:\Program Files\Activate\LogFiles
- Drive:\Program Files\Activate\SearchIndex
Note If you are running 32bit Activate on a 64bit platform then the path will be Drive:\Program Files (x86)\Activate
- Drive:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files
- Drive: \Users\service account\AppData\Local\Temp\Activate
- Drive:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles
- On 64 Bit Windows Server+, the location is Drive:\Windows\Syswow64\LogFiles Note If you use a specific account for Activate services or application pools identities, you may also have to exclude the following folders:
- Drive:\Users\ServiceAccount\AppData\Local\Temp
Activate Anywhere Server
The Activate Anywhere Server is installed in the default inetpub folder and this is usually in the C drive for the Server.
NOTE: The Drive placeholder represents the drive letter in which you have the default "inetpub" directory configured for. Typically, this drive letter is C.
- Drive:\Inetpub\Activate Anywhere Server
- Drive:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files (Note path varies depending on the version of .Net Framework installed)
- Drive: \Users\service account\AppData\Local\Temp\Activate
More Information
Anti-virus file-level scanners are frequently used. However, if they are configured incorrectly, they can cause problems in ASP.NET applications like Activate. There are two types of file-level scanners:
- Memory-resident file-level scanning refers to a part of file-level antivirus software that is loaded in memory at all times. It checks all the files that are used on the hard disk and in computer memory.
- On-demand file-level scanning refers to a part of file-level antivirus software that you can configure to scan files on the hard disk manually or on a schedule. Some versions of antivirus software start the on-demand scan automatically after virus signatures are updated to make sure that all files are scanned with the latest signatures.
These processes can cause Activate files to be locked when required by Activate and causes random errors. This is not specific to Activate but applies to Windows Server in general. For example, the following article provides the recommendations for SharePoint 2013 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/952167.
Specific issues can include
- Locking temporary ASP.NET dynamically complied DLLs
- Locking the Activate Full text Search index and causing random search errors during index refreshes
- Issues with temporary file creation during certain Activate processes
- Random failures with creating/updating/deleting any file, including any SMB transactions operation on remote file systems
- Random restarts of ASP.NET App Pool caused by recompilations. This is normally caused by files or timestamps in the Activate\wwwroot directory being changed causing ASP.NET to detect this. Common error message "The Activate IIS AppPool has been shutdown by IIS: Recompilation limit of 15 reached". This will cause end users to receive 'Session Timeouts' as ASP.NET has restarted.
If you are also running SQL Server on your Activate server, the SQL Server recommendations below may also apply.
Further information
Exchange Anti-Virus Recommendations - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332342(v=exchg.150).aspx
SQL Server Anti-Virus Recommendations - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/309422