Antivirus Software May Cause Problems with Cluster Services (250355)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition 4.0
This article was previously published under Q250355
Important This article contains information that shows you how to help lower security settings or how to turn off security features on a computer. You can make these changes to work around a specific problem. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this workaround in your particular environment. If you implement this workaround, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect your system.

SUMMARY

Antivirus software may cause problems with Cluster services, including issues with failing over resources such as physical disks.

MORE INFORMATION

Warning This workaround may make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

Note An antivirus program is designed to help protect your computer from viruses. You must not download or open files from sources that you do not trust, visit Web sites that you do not trust, or open e-mail attachments when your antivirus program is disabled.

For more information about computer viruses, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

129972 Computer viruses: description, prevention, and recovery

Most antivirus software uses filter drivers (device drivers) that work in conjunction with a service to scan for viruses. These filter drivers reside above the file system recognizer and scan files as they are opened and closed on a local hard disk. Antivirus software may not understand the shared disk model and may not properly allow for failover.

If you are troubleshooting failover issues or general problems with a Cluster server and antivirus software is installed, temporarily uninstall the antivirus software or check with the manufacturer of the software to determine if the antivirus software works with Cluster services. Simply disabling the antivirus software is not sufficient in most cases. Even if you disable the antivirus software, the filter driver is still loaded when you restart the computer.

For more information about how to fully disable antivirus software, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

240309 How to fully disable antivirus software from filtering files

Even if you are not monitoring the shared disk, the filter drivers are still loaded and may affect the operation of the cluster.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/5/2006
Keywords:kb3rdparty kbClustering kbinfo w2000mscs KB250355
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