IMF Tune - Disk Anti-Virus Configuration

On-access disk anti-virus scanning is known to interfere with disk access operations that other applications perform. Here we describe the IMF Tune Server directory structure explaining which disk directories are to be excluded from aggressive anti-virus scanning.

On-access scanning processes files as soon as these are written to disk. Scanning is triggered by most disk write operations, including creating and editing files.

For the duration of the scan, files become inaccessible to the application. Most often this forces applications to wait until the file becomes accessible again. In other cases an application may abort file access causing some failures. Less commonly anti-virus interference may even lead to data corruption.

Whereas on-access scanning may cause significant interference, scheduled scans are less intrusive. These can be configured to run after-hours when applications are running under less load. Thus applications are better able to cope with the impact of locked files.

IMF Tune Server Application Directory

The default IMF Tune application directory is:
<Program Files>\WinDeveloper IMF Tune

Immediately under the application root we find the server binaries and various sub-directories. It is ok to have on-access scanning at the application root, but application performance will suffer if on-access scanning is also applied to the sub-directories.

The table that follows shows the recommended anti-virus settings using the labels:

Scheduled - Disabling of on-access AV scanning is recommended. Scanning may be configured to run on a fixed schedule when the email load is low.

On-Access - Enabling on-access AV scanning won't have a significant performance impact.

Note: Some directories in the table that follows contain other sub-directories. Apply the same AV scanning setting to the directory tree as for the parent directory.

Directory	AV Scanning	Details
`\works`	Scheduled	Temporary directory where files are created and moved to their final destination. This is one of the busiest IMF Tune directories.
`\jobs`	Scheduled	This directory acts as a job queue. It allows the IMF Tune engine to quickly scan and move on to the next email, leaving more time consuming operations to other processes.
`\archive`	Scheduled	The default email archive directory used in archiving/quarantining. At the configuration it is possible to change this directory path. In that case disable on-access scanning on the new archive directory.
`\logs`	Scheduled	The default log reporting directory. At the configuration it is possible to change this directory path. In that case disable on-access scanning on the new reporting directory.
`\qcache`	Scheduled	Temporary quarantine data directory. Here IMF Tune writes data that is loaded in batches to the quarantine database server.
`\syncdat`	Scheduled	This is most busy when Sender Auto-Whitelisting is enabled. In that case it is important to disable on-access scanning. The directory is also used to store whitelist, blacklist and SCL rule data.
`\configV<n>`	On-Access	Stores the configuration databases. Normally the IMF Tune configuration does not change that often. So it is fine to allow on-access scanning. The exact directory name will vary depending on your current IMF Tune version. <n> is the IMF Tune major product version.
`\data`	On-Access	Stores environment data.
`\lists`	On-Access	Default directory for External SCL Rule files. These rules require an external file from which the keywords to be matched are loaded.
`\backup`	On-Access	Default directory used by the IMF Tune Configuration Backup/Restore tools.
`\diagnostics`	On-Access	Stores troubleshooting logs. These may be useful whenever asking WinDeveloper for support.

Version Information

This article was authored for WinDeveloper IMF Tune v6.x. It is normal for IMF Tune to retain the same directory usage definition across versions. So this article should remain largely applicable to future versions. Check with WinDeveloper Support for more details.

Latest Releases

IMF Tune - Disk Anti-Virus Configuration

IMF Tune Server Application Directory

Version Information