Configure exclusions when SMS for Microsoft Exchange and SEP is installed with other antivirus software

Products

• Endpoint Protection

Issue/Introduction

You need to know what exclusions to set up in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) when you have a computer on which you have installed Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE) 5.x or 6.x, and one or more of the following.

• Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.x, 14.3x

Resolution

SMSMSE's latest releases of SEP and SAV are designed to automatically exclude Microsoft Exchange's key files and SMSMSE's key folders in their default locations. Administrators may wish to create exclusions that explicitly exclude the SMSMSE directory as a redundant measure.

This measure is particularly recommended for environments where an earlier release of SEP is in place or any other antivirus is installed. 

Creating a Manual Exclusion

If you are installing Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange 6.x or later, the server directory and all the subfolders should be excluded manually in Symantec Endpoint Protection or other third-party security products.

• 64-bit servers (Exchange 2007 or later)
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\SMSMSE\<Version>\Server\

The actual paths to the above directories can vary, depending on custom installations, and will need to be set up accordingly.  Of particular importance is the exclusion of the Temp subfolder as this folder is critical to the operation of SMSMSE: it uses the Temp folder as a processing directory.  One of the most common reasons that the Mail Security service gets stuck in a "starting" state is that The Temp and Quarantine folders are not excluded, and some other antivirus product has those files locked. Excluding the "Server" folder and all subdirectories will correctly avoid this issue.