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Gus Denton
Asked: 2011-06-27 17:56:56 +0800 CST

Symantec Endpoint Protection Virus Definitions

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I have done some Googling but I cannot get a definitive answer certainly not from the Symantec KB.

I have a Virtualised Win 2003R2 server 32bit. It has been provisioned to me with Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0.62xxx CLIENT (not a definitions server)

the directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VirusDefs is 750MB

IT doesn't contain .tmp directories so it is NOT a corrupt definitions server. IT does contain directories named with a date pattern YYYYMMDD.xxx

Some of these folders are 12 months old and I would like to recover the space. The sysmantect forums are full of this stuff but a lot of the postings contain links back to documents that are not specific to End Point Protection Client.

It appears that I should be able to delete the older folders and all will be OK. with a service restart however there is a warning about having Live Update Administrator Installed

Firstly I have no idea if I have this installed how to I check and secondly can I just ditch these old files and restart?

I have followed some instructions found on the Symantec site and assumed that the response from Nixphoe would resolve my issue. It appears that as I am on a provisioned VM from a central IT unit I cannot run the Symantec commands from the Run prompt as my admin creds to get me in. (smc -stop)
Basically I need to claw back some Diskspace from the c: drive which is being filed up with WSUS patches and Symantec files. I have managed to delete one symantec cache through the live update control panel and recovered 470Mb

I suppose my last question for those more experienced than myself is, can I simply remove say the two oldest virus definition folders without completely foobaring the End Point protection and the server?

windows-server-2003 malware symantec symantec-endpoint-protection

2 Answers

  1. Live update should show up in your add/remove programs, as well as under your Start > Programs.

    Read over the Content Cache Directory. It should be safe to clean that up. It also has a link about how to use Client Cache Control

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  2. Usually defenitions are located in App Data folder in the root dirctory. ( folder is hidden by default ) the path to the folder should be: C:\ProgramData\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\CurrentVersion\Data\Definitions\VirusDefs Depending on your setting you should have only one folder with most current definitions.
    Size of the folder varies but form my experience it averages at about 400-600mb

    Answering your question about deleteing defections, I would say No. As far as I know you can't delete definitions. That one of t he problems that im facing right now

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