Anti-virus products can cause problems with ClearSCADA unless certain file exclusions have been configured.
You can exclude certain files from anti-virus software to prevent unnecessary scanning of files and/or network traffic that degrades ClearSCADA performance.
Consider excluding the following files:
- Files or folders that can be executed from real-time scanning
- Application names or services if they access network resources
- All TCP/IP and UDP port numbers that are used by ViewX or WebX.
For information about TCP and UDP port numbers that are registered with the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) for particular protocols, see the relevant driver-specific guide in ClearSCADA online Help.
The "on access" scan in anti-virus products can lock files used by ClearSCADA, usually having the effect of slowing down ClearSCADA whilst it waits for the scan of that file to finish.
If an anti-virus program locks a database file whilst it is being written to, then after retries, it can cause the ClearSCADA server to enter the invalid state with an error stating the inability to write to the database file. Use a suitable utility such as FileMon from Sysinternals to locate the processes that are accessing these files.
Archive times can be drastically improved by reducing occurrences of anti-virus products scanning each file it creates and reads.
The following general directories are recommended to be added to any anti-virus products. (To locate specific directories used on your system,see the Location section of the Server Config.)
- ClearSCADA installation directory (including files and sub directories)
- ClearSCADA installation (x64) directory (on 64 bit operating systems)
- Database Files directory (including ClearSCADAConfig*.dat,ClearSCADAData.data*.dat,ClearSCADAMetadata.xml and all temp files created in the database files directory). For more information, see Locations of the Database Folders
- History folder (including files and sub directories)
- Journal folder (including files and sub directories)
- Historic Files folder (including files and sub directories)
- Data Files folder (including files and sub directories)
- Archive folder.
Under the history and journal folders, folders will be created for each item that has historic data to archive. If your anti-virus product does not support wildcards in exclusions, then either add the entire history or journal directories to the exclusion list or do not have any exclusion and allow for longer archives durations.
The above exclusions are recommended for the "on access" or "real time" scan that is running continuously and scans each file that is read from or written to. Scheduled scans, which are usually daily or once a week, should also have these exclusions added with the exception of the Program Files exclusion.
Also see Online Defragmenter Exclusions.