Virus Scanning Software and TAM

Product: The Agency Manager - Series 8 and above

Applied Systems, Inc. strongly encourages agencies to have a virus scanning solution, though we do not recommend or endorse any particular product. While we do encourage the use of a virus scanning program, please keep in mind that virus scanning concurrently with TAM may cause a performance degradation, as program files pulled from a network must first be scanned before they can be executed. Additionally, it is a good practice to check with the vendor of the antivirus software on a regular basis for updated virus definitions to ensure protection against the latest viruses.

The following are provided as a general guideline for antivirus software setup, but by no means does Applied Systems consider this to be the only way to run or configure your antivirus software:

• It is recommended that antivirus software be installed and regularly updated.
• Workstation installations of antivirus software should be set to do real-time scanning of local drives only, not network drives. Should you not have a server version of antivirus software, thorough virus scanning of all local and network drives, as well as all software updating, should be scheduled to run outside regular business hours due to the performance degradation and program errors that may occur. 
• For performance and error reduction reasons, server installations should do real-time scans of network drives only. It is highly recommended that thorough virus scanning of all local and network drives, as well as all software updating, be scheduled to run outside regular business hours due to the performance degradation and program errors that may occur. 
• Unless performance degradation or errors are experienced, antivirus software should not have file/folder exclusions set other than those set by default in the software.
• Should performance degradation be experienced, file or folder exclusions should then be set with the minimum amount of exclusions which results in increased performance or reduction in errors. Adjustments to the exclusion list should be made incrementally, with thorough testing of the system between each adjustment.

  Warning: No exclusions should be set unless your system is stable and complete tape backups are completed successfully on a regular basis.
  
  It is recommended that exclusions be set in roughly the following order, though the order may change depending on your issue. 

  Note: Because the following are files or folders found on the network, it is recommended these exclusions be set within a server installation of antivirus software:

  • The AS_LOCK folder
  • The AS_TEMP folder
  • The TAM_EXE folder

  It is NOT recommended to exclude the following files and/or folders from your real-time virus scanning:

  • Program files (*.EXE), including the network WINTAM folder
  • Download and newly created files
  • Email
  • Operating System folders (e.g., C:\WINDOWS, or C:\WINNT)

1. It is best to suffer a little performance degradation than to open the gates to damaging viruses.
2. Search the website of your antivirus software for information and recommendations on setting scan exclusions.
3. Because some performance-related issues and errors that occur in TAM may be similar to those caused by opportunistic locking, Applied Systems Support has written a document that can help troubleshoot these types of errors. Please contact Systems Support for assistance in utilizing these troubleshooting procedures.
4. Applied Systems takes no responsibility for any issues that may result from having received a virus on your system.

Last Revised: November 18, 2008 10:23 AM