Deliberately NOT scan a certain folder and subfolders

Hi,

Adding an exclusion in the policy for:

C:\ClusterStorage\

Note the trailing backslash.  

Remember that you may want to do this for both on-access and on-demand scans.

Regards,

Jak

Hi Jak,

Thanks for the reply, but...  Sorry, I don't know HOW to do this.  From the client?  Server?  How?  Where do I go?

CB

If the computer are managed in Enterprise console, I suspect they are in a group.

If you right click on the group you can find the name of the Sophos Anti-Virus policy that applies to the group.

If you open that policy you want to:

1. Click on Configure - to the right of 'Enable on access scanning'

2. Click on the Windows Exclusions tab.

3. Click Add, then choose Folder

4. Enter the item name as:
C:\ClusterStorage\

Ensure to add the trailing slash.

If you have any scheduled scans setup in the policy you can also add the directory for those.

If the computer are managed in Enterprise console, I suspect they are in a group.

If you right click on the group you can find the name of the Sophos Anti-Virus policy that applies to the group.

If you open that policy you want to:

1. Click on Configure - to the right of 'Enable on access scanning'

2. Click on the Windows Exclusions tab.

3. Click Add, then choose Folder

4. Enter the item name as:
C:\ClusterStorage\

Ensure to add the trailing slash.

If you have any scheduled scans setup in the policy you can also add the directory for those.

Hi Jak,

Well my goodness.  NO.  I only had one group, the default "Computers".  EVERYTHING is in there.  I've never used groups in the Sophos EC before.  And I only have on policy:  "Default".

So I just created a new group called "Physical Host Servers".  I then duplicated the Anti-Virus and HIPS" policy, named that the same as the group name, and applied that to the new group (which, of course, I moved those 3 servers into).  Then I followed your instructions to add the folder exclusion.

Sound like I did it right?

But now there is a whole new can of worms I never even knew about...  Groups and Policy application!  What are best practices for different types of boxes?  By physical or virtual?  By OS?  I had NO idea how robust this could get.  The "Domain Controllers" group you see was NOT created by me, so I assume it is a Sophos default.  I have 3 DCs: one physical and 2 virtual.  They are all in the regular group using the default policies.  Is that bad?  Is there anything I should know about setting policies for DCs?  What about SQL servers?

My goodness, I feel like I've discovered a whole new world (that I should have known about)!

What do you advise?  THANKS!

CB

Oh, forgot...

You had previously mentioned "on-access" AND "on-demand" scanning, but it seems we have only dealt with "on-access" through the policy change?  What about the "on-demand"?  Thanks!

When I mentioned on-demand it was referring more to scheduled/user initiated rather than on-access.  

Essentially if you have scheduled scans setup via policy you will want to make the exclusions are configured for those.  You can see the button - 'Extensions and Exclusions' on the first dialog when editing the Anti-Virus policy the applies to the group in SEC.  You want to add the same Windows exclusion there.

Regards,

Jak

Thank you, this was all very helpful.