You can use on-access scanning to check for viruses when clients open, read, rename, or close files over SMB. File operations are suspended until the external server reports the scan status of the file. If the file has already been scanned, ONTAP allows the file operation. Otherwise, it requests a scan from the server.

You can use on-demand scanning to check files for viruses immediately or on a schedule. We recommend that on-demand scans run only in off-peak hours to avoid overloading existing AV infrastructure, which is normally sized for on-access scanning. The external server updates the scan status of checked files, so that file-access latency is reduced over SMB. If there were file modifications or software version updates, it requests a new file scan from the external server.