Question
Pegasystems Inc.
JP
Last activity: 29 Jul 2019 22:25 EDT
Any consideration for Antivirus software on Pega Platform
Hi,
Most of my experience with Pega is Linux for operating system but in my current project customer is considering Windows operating system, and they need to introduce Antivirus software (McAfee) on Pega Platform server. Are there any special consideration needed for this? For example, Pega Platform creates and updates a lot of files and directories under temp directory - log files, assemble files, index, uploaded files, and so on. If these get scanned in real time, would Pega still work okay? Or in general should we exclude temp directory from scan target?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Accepted Solution
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Hello Tsuchi
Thanks for the question. It's theoretically reasonable to run virus scan on the Pega "prtemp directoy"
However, you should be aware of the consequences
- first off, as you state there can be lots of file I/O in those directories. For Logs and in the PrGenJava/PrGenClasses
- keep in mind virus scanning will "steal CPU" cycles away from the app. so it can impact performance
- And, virus scanning can hold open file descriptors which could make other IO block or be slowed down.
- For Logs and PRGenjava/GenClasses - would we really suspect any viruses to be introduced that way?
- I don't think so. Please teach me if you see ways
- but in my view, log lines written to log files by the Pega app could not contain viruses
- Similarly, how could java created by Pega Infinity contain viruses in the assembled java? I don't envision that.
- Therefore excluding those directories may be wise
- In the PRtemp dir, there is 1 subdirectory that is used for file upload and download. That's the ServiceExport directory.
- That can be vulnerable. So it's well worth running virus scan on that subdir.
Hope that helps
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
Hello
I have seen/worked with many clients hosting their application in Windows and using various anti virus. Nothing seems to have adversely affected the application.
Accepted Solution
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Hello Tsuchi
Thanks for the question. It's theoretically reasonable to run virus scan on the Pega "prtemp directoy"
However, you should be aware of the consequences
- first off, as you state there can be lots of file I/O in those directories. For Logs and in the PrGenJava/PrGenClasses
- keep in mind virus scanning will "steal CPU" cycles away from the app. so it can impact performance
- And, virus scanning can hold open file descriptors which could make other IO block or be slowed down.
- For Logs and PRGenjava/GenClasses - would we really suspect any viruses to be introduced that way?
- I don't think so. Please teach me if you see ways
- but in my view, log lines written to log files by the Pega app could not contain viruses
- Similarly, how could java created by Pega Infinity contain viruses in the assembled java? I don't envision that.
- Therefore excluding those directories may be wise
- In the PRtemp dir, there is 1 subdirectory that is used for file upload and download. That's the ServiceExport directory.
- That can be vulnerable. So it's well worth running virus scan on that subdir.
Hope that helps
