Configuring The Autoupdate Utility - McAfee VIRUSSCAN 4.5 Administrator's Manual

If you make the files you download files available on one or more central
servers on your network, then configure your remaining network nodes to
"pull" the updated files from those servers, you can
• Schedule network-wide .DAT file roll-outs for convenient times and with
minimal intervention from either administrators or network users. Use the
AutoUpdate Task Properties dialog box to determine when each network
node will check your network server for updated files.
You might, for example, specify one convenient update time when you first
deploy VirusScan software, but set the AutoUpdate utility to trigger at a
random interval within 60 minutes of that time, or set a schedule that
phases in or rotates .DAT file updates among different parts of the
network. To learn how to schedule the AutoUpdate task or other tasks, see
"Enabling tasks" on page 208
• Split roll-out administration duties among different servers or domain
controllers, among different regions of wide-area networks, or across other
network divisions. Keeping update traffic primarily internal can also
reduce the potential for network security breaches.
• Reduce the likelihood that you will need to wait to download new .DAT
files. Traffic on McAfee servers increases dramatically on regular .DAT file
publishing dates. Avoiding the competition for network bandwidth
enables you to deploy your update with minimal interruptions.
Other advanced AutoUpdate options allow you to back up existing .DAT files,
install the .DAT file update, reboot the updated computer, if necessary, or run
particular programs after successful updates.

Configuring the AutoUpdate Utility

To configure the AutoUpdate utility so that it runs properly as a task within
the VirusScan console, you must tell it:
• which update sites have the new files you want to download
• which transfer method you want it to use for the download
• whether you use a proxy server and, if so, what port you have assigned to it
• whether you want it to back up your existing .DAT files
• what you want it to do with the files it downloads-install them, save them
for future use, or both
• what you want it to do after it downloads the files-force an update, reboot
your system after an update, or run a program after an update
• whether you want it to keep track of its actions in a log file
Updating and Upgrading VirusScan Software
of the VirusScan User's Guide.
User's Guide 109