Recommendations for antivirus exclusions that relate to Operations Manager 2019 and later

This article outlines antivirus exclusions that relate to System Center 2019 Operations Manager and later. For earlier versions of Operations Manager, see antivirus exclusions (Operations Manager 2012, 2012 R2, and 2016).

For specific exclusion recommendations for supported versions of SQL Server, see: Configure antivirus software to work with SQL Server.

Exclusions by process executable

If exclusions are configured based on process executable, exclude the following processes:

Component	Process
Management servers	HealthService.exe MonitoringHost.exe MOMPerfSnapshotHelper.exe Microsoft.Mom.Sdk.ServiceHost.exe cshost.exe
Gateway server	HealthService.exe MonitoringHost.exe
Windows agent	HealthService.exe MonitoringHost.exe MOMPerfSnapshotHelper.exe
Web Console server	HealthService.exe MonitoringHost.exe
SQL Server1	HealthService.exe MonitoringHost.exe

¹ For SQL Server servers hosting the Operations Manager databases (Operational, Data Warehouse, ACS) and Reporting server role.

Note

You must be careful when you add exclusions that are based on executables. Incorrectly configured exclusions may prevent some potentially dangerous programs from being detected. Therefore, we don't recommend relying on exclusions that are based on any process executables for Operations Manager servers.

Exclusions by directories

The following directory-specific exclusions for Operations Manager include real-time scans, scheduled scans, and local scans. The directories that are listed here are default application directories, so you may have to modify these paths based on your specific environment. Only the following Operations Manager related directories should be excluded.

Note

When a directory that is to be excluded has a directory name greater than 8 characters long, add both the short and long directory names of the directory to the exclusion list. These names are required by some antivirus programs to traverse sub-directories.

Component	Directory Exclusion
SQL Server database server	Exclude the directory containing the .ldf and .mdf files for all Operations Manager databases, Report server databases, and the master and tempdb databases.
Management server	%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\Server\Health Service State
Gateway server	%ProgramFiles%\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\Health Service State
Windows agent	%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Monitoring Agent\Agent\Health Service State
Reporting server	%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\Reporting
Web Console server	%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\WebConsole

Exclusion of file type by extension

The following file name extension-specific exclusions for Operations Manager include real-time scans, scheduled scans, and local scans.

Component	File Type Extension Exclusion
SQL Server database server	Exclude file type extension .ldf and .mdf. These exclusions include SQL Server database files for all Operations Manager databases, Report Server databases, and the system database files for master and tempdb.
Management server Gateway server Agents	Exclude file type extensions .edb, .chk, and .log. These exclusions include the queue and log files used by Operations Manager.

Next steps

For a complete listing of ports used, the direction of the communication, and if the ports can be configured, see Configuring a Firewall for Operations Manager.