All primary Virus scanners failed, considering backups

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Postfix

Spamassassin

Clamav

Situation

Symptoms:

Error "All primary Virus scanners failed, considering backups" in the /var/log/mail.err

Configuration:

Postfix, Clam AntiVirus, Spamassassin and Amavis were isntalled and running.

Resolution

Amavis (mail scanner) was not configured to use any antivirus to scan the emails even though clam antivirus was installed and running on the server. Amavis can be configured to use clam antivirus for virus scanning by following the below mentioned steps.

Connect to the server using a putty session or launch Shell Konsole or connect to any terminal on the server.
Make a copy of the amavis.conf file by typing the following command
cp /etc/amavisd.conf /etc/amavisd.backup
Edit the amavisd.conf by typing vi /etc/amavisd.conf
Scroll through the file and remove the hash (#) from these lines so it should look like this
['ClamAV-clamd',
\&ask_daemon, ["CONTSCAM {}\n", "127.0.0.1:3310"],
qr/\bOK$/, qr/\bFOUND$/,
qr/^.*?: (?!Infected Archive)(.*) FOUND$/ ],
Save the file and exit.
Restart the amavis service by typing the following command on the terminal
rcamavis restart

Disclaimer

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