Virus scan s/w for VMS (Pworks/Advanced Server)

[Dave Gudewicz]

Would like to hear from people here about the pros and cons of virus scan s/w on VMS, mainly to scan the shares created and maintained by Pworks and Advanced Server on either VAX or Alpha boxes.

Found a package that runs on VMS, named VSWEEP from Sophos. Looks good and I intend to get an evaluation copy.

There is also lots of PC s/w that can do same.

I'm leaning toward the VMS s/w at the moment.

Comments? Suggestions?

[Ian Miller.]

VSWEEP is the only software I've heard of that runs on VMS. If the anti virus software runs on VMS you avoid the load on the PWRK server from scanning the shared drive however it means you have to keep up to date two AV products - one on VMS and one on your PC. Also consider that occationally it has happended that virus is not detected by one AV product but is detected by another (although this is usually a temporary problem).

As usual with these things it's more of a management problem than a technical one.

[John Eerenberg]

Maybe I have my head in the sand, but VMS doesn't need a virus scanner to protect VMS (I'm pretty sure the OS security group where I work would have clamped down on VMS if it was needed).

I took a quick look at the the sophos website. The package runs on almost all platforms. Is this virus scanner to scan for virus that may threaten, say a WindowsXP user? In otherwords, are we disinfecting files on VMS so an inbound connection from a browser (desktop or whatever) doesn't see a virus in the first place?
If that is the case, I would defintely pursue this type of strategy.

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Dave,

we use VSWEEP to protect the data on our Pathworks Shares from viruses.

An to answer John, yes this is not to protect VMS from catching a cold, but to protect the PCs that access VMS as a file server.

Greetings, Martin

[Lokesh_2]

Hi Dave,

We do also use VSWEEP to protect data of our pathwork share. VSWEEP is easy to install and require very little maintanence.

Thanks & regards,
Lokesh

[Brad McCusker]

Dave - Sophos is what we have always recommended, and, I have not heard anyone complain back to me.

But, for what its worth, I rely on the PC products for simplicity. However, I have a small server with only a couple shares that I need to worry about. If I was managing a larger server, I would probably go the Sophos route too.

Good luck.

Brad