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Download anti-malware engine and definition updates

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Administrators can manually download anti-malware engine and definition (signature) updates. We strongly recommend that you download engine and definition updates before you put the Exchange server into production.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes

  • You can only use PowerShell to perform this procedure.

    To learn how to open the Exchange Management Shell in your on-premises Exchange organization, see Open the Exchange Management Shell.

  • To download updates, your computer needs to be able to access the Internet and to establish a connection on TCP port 80 (HTTP). If your organization uses a proxy server for Internet access, see the following section in this topic.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "anti-malware" entry in the Antispam and anti-malware permissions topic.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to manually download engine and definition updates

To download engine and definition updates, run the following command:

& $env:ExchangeInstallPath\Scripts\Update-MalwareFilteringServer.ps1 -Identity <FQDN of server>

This example manually downloads the engine and definition updates on the Exchange server named mailbox01.contoso.com:

& $env:ExchangeInstallPath\Scripts\Update-MalwareFilteringServer.ps1 -Identity mailbox01.contoso.com

Optionally, you can use the EngineUpdatePath parameter to download updates from somewhere other than the default location. You can use this parameter to specify an alternate HTTP address or a UNC path. If you specify a UNC path, the network service must have access to the path.

This example manually downloads engine and definition updates on the Exchange server named mailbox01.contoso.com from the UNC path \\FileServer01\Data\MalwareUpdates:

& $env:ExchangeInstallPath\Scripts\Update-MalwareFilteringServer.ps1 -Identity mailbox01.contoso.com -EngineUpdatePath \\FileServer01\Data\MalwareUpdates

How do you know this worked?

In order to verify that updates were downloaded successfully, you need to access Event Viewer and view the event log. We recommend that you filter only FIPFS events, as described in the following procedure.

  1. From the Start menu, select All Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

  2. In Event Viewer, expand the Windows Logs folder, and then select Application.

  3. In the Actions menu, select Filter Current Log.

  4. In the Filter Current Log dialog box, from the Event sources drop-down list, select the FIPFS check box, and then select OK.

If engine updates were downloaded successfully, you'll see Event ID 6033, which will appear similar to the following:

MS Filtering Engine Update process performed a successful scan engine update.

Scan Engine: Microsoft

Update Path: http://forefrontdl.microsoft.com/server/scanengineupdate

Last Update time: 2012-08-16T13:22:17.000Z

Engine Version: 1.1.8601.0

Signature Version: 1.131.2169.0

Use the Exchange Management Shell to configure proxy server settings for anti-malware updates

If your organization uses a proxy server to control access to the Internet, you need to identify the proxy server so that you can successfully download anti-malware engine and definition updates. Proxy server settings that are available using the Netsh.exe tool, Internet Explorer connection settings, and the InternetWebProxy parameter on the Set-ExchangeServer cmdlet don't affect how anti-malware updates are downloaded.

To configure the proxy server settings for anti-malware updates, perform the following steps.

  1. Run the following command:

    Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.Forefront.Filtering.Management.Powershell

  2. Use the Get-ProxySettings and Set-ProxySettings cmdlets to view and configure the proxy server settings that are used to download anti-malware updates. The Set-ProxySettings cmdlet uses the following syntax:

    Set-ProxySettings -Enabled <$true | $false> -Server <Name or IP address of proxy server> -Port <TCP port of proxy server>

    For example, to configure anti-malware updates to use the proxy server at address 172.17.17.10 on TCP port 80, run the following command.

    Set-ProxySettings -Enabled $true -Server 172.17.17.10 -Port 80

To verify the proxy server settings, run the Get-ProxySettings cmdlet.

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