Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway database update

This section contains information about updating Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, and Anti-Phishing databases.

About database updates

Databases of the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, and Anti-Phishing modules (hereafter also referred to as "databases") are files containing records that can be used to detect malicious code in scanned objects. These records contain information about the control sections of malicious code and algorithms used for disinfecting objects that contain such threats.

Virus analysts at Kaspersky Lab detect hundreds of new threats daily, create records to identify them, and include them in database updates packages (or update packages). Update packages consist of one or several files containing records to identify threats that were detected since the previous update package was released. In order to minimize the risk of infecting the protected mail server, we recommend that you receive database update packages regularly.

As long as the license is in effect, you can receive database update packages from Kaspersky Lab's website automatically on schedule, or download and install them manually.

During installation, Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway downloads the latest databases from one of Kaspersky Lab's update servers. If you have configured automatic database updates, Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway runs updates according to schedule (with a frequency of once per 5 minutes).

Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway periodically and automatically checks for new update packages on Kaspersky Lab's update servers. By default, if the Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway anti-virus databases have not been updated within 24 hours or the Anti-Spam databases have not been updated within an hour since Kaspersky Lab released the latest updates, Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway logs the event Databases are out of date into the event log. If the anti-virus databases have not been updated within a week, or the Anti-Spam databases have not been updated within 24 hours, Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway logs the event Databases are obsolete. You can configure administrator notifications about these events.

About update sources

Update source is a resource containing updates for Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway databases.

The main update source is Kaspersky Lab's update servers. These are special Internet sites which contain updates for databases and application modules for all Kaspersky Lab products. If you connect to the Internet via a proxy server, you have to configure the proxy server connection settings.

To reduce the amount of Internet traffic, you can configure Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway to update databases from a custom update source. HTTP or FTP servers or local folders on your computer can serve as custom updates sources.

If Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway is managed using Kaspersky Security Center, you can select Kaspersky Security Center as the update source.

Selecting the update source

To select the update source:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the Program Database Update Settings section, click the Update source link to open the Program database update settings window.
3. In the Update source settings group, select the source from which you want to receive update packages:
   • Kaspersky Lab servers.
   • Kaspersky Security Center.
   • Custom update source.
4. If you selected a custom update source, in the field under Kaspersky Security Center enter the web address of the update package on your FTP or HTTP server or the full path to the folder with the update package.

   You can also select the If inaccessible, use Kaspersky Lab servers check box if you want to receive the update package from Kaspersky Lab's update servers whenever the custom update source is unavailable.

5. Click the OK button.

Configuring the database update schedule and settings

To configure the database update schedule and settings:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the Program Database Update Settings section, click the Schedule or Update source link to open the Program database update settings window.
3. In the Schedule settings group, select one of the following options in the drop-down list:
   • Manually.
   • Once
   • Weekly
   • Monthly
   • Run every
4. In the Schedule settings group, specify the frequency of database updates in the fields on the right of the drop-down list. The following values can be specified depending on the schedule selected:
   • If the database update start mode is set to Once, specify the date and time at which the database update is to start in the corresponding fields.
   • If the database update start mode is set to Weekly, specify the day of the week and the time at which the database update is to start in the corresponding fields.

     For example, if the values are set to Monday and 3:00 PM, the database update runs every Monday at 15:00.

   • If the database update start mode is set to Monthly, in the corresponding fields specify the day of the month and the time at which the database update is to start.

     For example, if the values are set to 20 and 3:00 PM, the database update runs on the 20th day of the month at 15:00.

   • For the Run every update start mode, specify the frequency of the update start in minutes, hours, or days in the corresponding fields:
     • To specify the frequency of updates in minutes, select the min value in the list in the right part of the window, specify the frequency in minutes, and in the Starting at field specify the time of the first database update.

       For example, if the frequency value is set to 30, the min. frequency option has been selected, and the value of the Starting at field is set to 15:00, the database update starts every 30 minutes beginning at 3 p.m.

     • To specify the frequency of updates in hours, select the hours value in the list in the right part of the window, specify the frequency in hours, and in the Starting at field specify the date and time of the first database update.

       For example, if the frequency value is set to 3, the hr(s). frequency option has been selected, and the values the Starting at field are 25.05.2017 and 15:00, the database update starts every 3 hours beginning at 3 p.m. on the 25th May, 2017.

     • To specify the frequency of updates in days, select the days value in the list in the right part of the window, specify the frequency in days, and in the Starting at field specify the time of the first database update.

       For example, if the frequency value is set to 2, the days frequency option has been selected, and the value of the Starting at field is set to 15:00, the database update starts once every two days (every other day) at 3 p.m.

5. In the Update settings section, in the Randomization interval field specify the deviation from the scheduled time (in minutes) after which the database update is to run on computers so that these computers do not attempt to access the update source simultaneously when the database update starts. This feature is provided to solve the problem of simultaneous access to the update source by a large number of computers when the database update starts.
6. In the Update settings section, in the Maximum duration  field specify the maximum duration of the update process in minutes, after which the database update must be stopped.
7. In the Update settings section, in the Run skipped tasks list select the procedure for starting the task of the update was not performed at the scheduled time for one of the following reasons:
   • The computer was unavailable (turned off or disconnected from the Internet);
   • The application was not running.

   If the option to run missed tasks is enabled, an attempt is made to start the database update task the next time the application starts on the computer. In the Manually and Once update start mode, the database update task starts as soon as the computer goes online on the local area network.

   If the option to run missed tasks is disabled, the database update tasks are started on computers according to schedule only, and Manually and Once database updates are started only on computers connected to the local area network.

8. Click the OK button.

Setting default values for database update settings

To set default values for database update settings and the default database update schedule:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the Program Database Update Settings section, click the Schedule link to open the Program database update settings window.
3. In the lower part of the Program database update settings window, click the Set default values link.
4. Click the OK button.

Updating databases manually

To start a database update manually:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the workspace in the Program Database Update Settings section, click the Start update link to start a database update.

   The Start update link is replaced by the Updating in progress message, and the database update progress is displayed.

Configuring proxy server connection settings for database updates

To configure proxy server connection settings for database updates:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the Use Proxy Server section, click any link to open the Connection settings window.
3. In the Proxy server settings settings group, select one of the following options in the Use proxy server drop-down list:
   • Yes, if you want to use a proxy server with Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway.
   • No, If you do not want to use a proxy server with Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway.
4. In the Address field, enter the proxy server address.
5. In the Port field, enter the proxy server port.
6. In the Authentication settings settings group, select one of the following options in the Authentication drop-down list:
   • Not required, if you do not want to use authentication when connecting to the proxy server.
   • Plain, if you want to use authentication when connecting to the proxy server.
7. If the Authentication setting is set to Plain, enter the user name and password for connecting to the proxy server in the User name and Password fields.
8. In the Proxy server connection settings settings group, in the Bypass proxy for local addresses drop-down list, select one of the following values:
   • Yes , if you do not want to use a proxy server for internal email addresses of your organization.
   • No — if you want to use a proxy server irrespective of whether or not email addresses belong to your organization.
9. Click the OK button.

To enable or disable usage of a proxy server:

1. In the main window of the application web interface, open the management console tree and select the Settings section and Database Update subsection.
2. In the workspace, do one of the following:
   • Flip on the toggle switch next to the name of the Use Proxy Server settings group if you want to use a proxy server with Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway.
   • Flip off the toggle switch next to the name of the Use Proxy Server settings group if you do not want to use a proxy server with Kaspersky Secure Mail Gateway.

You can enable use of a proxy server only after you configure the proxy server connection settings.