I am working with Rackspace (but this applies to any good host provider) to configure a Red Hat Linux web and database server. Both machines are dedicated to us and managed by Rackspace. Rackspace asked if we wanted Sophos antivirus on our machines for a small monthly fee.
Would you install and pay for antivirus on a web and database server?
Why would I want antivirus on these machines? What are the pros/cons?
Best Answer
Most of the times when anti-virus software is deployed on a Linux server it's to protect the computers that are accessing files off the server and not to protect the server itself. It's most common to find anti-virus on email and file servers running Linux for this reason.
So if your web server has files on it that others are accessing or are using it to send/receive email it may not be a bad idea to have some sort of anti-virus running.