Clamav:freshclam update

On occasion there can be errors with clamav which can relate to the download of update files as shown below. The admin account can be flooded by emails when clamav tries to update its database, this can occur several times a day.

freshclam: Update failed

2013-03-02 22:57:11.757539500 ClamAV update process started at Sat Mar  2 22:57:11 2013
2013-03-02 22:57:31.922779500 WARNING: Can't query current.cvd.clamav.net
2013-03-02 22:57:31.922783500 WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
2013-03-02 22:57:31.923493500 Reading CVD header (main.cvd): ERROR: Can't get information about database.clamav.net: Temporary failure in name resolution
2013-03-02 22:58:52.561344500 WARNING: Can't read main.cvd header from database.clamav.net (IP: )
2013-03-02 22:58:52.561855500 Giving up on database.clamav.net...
2013-03-02 22:58:52.561968500 Update failed. Your network may be down or none of the mirrors listed in /etc/freshclam.conf is working. Check http://www.clamav.net/support/mirror-problem for possible reasons.

Method 1

	Tip:
	This is a workaround to create a new database solving the error condition of clamav. Use a root terminal to perform these commands.

Shutdown clam so clamd.socket file is removed

service clamd stop

Navigate to clamav folder

cd /var/clamav

which showes just 5 files in the /var/clamav folder:

ls -la /var/clamav
-rw-r--r--  1 clamav clamav    60125 Feb 17 12:11 bytecode.cvd
srw-rw-rw-  1 clamav clamav        0 Feb 24 14:27 clamd.socket
-rw-r--r--  1 clamav clamav 52101120 Feb 24 11:46 daily.cld
-rw-r--r--  1 clamav clamav 30750647 Oct 11  2011 main.cvd
-rw-------  1 clamav clamav      104 Feb 24 14:46 mirrors.dat

	Warning:
	if you have limited bandwidth or on a slow connection then don't delete main.cvd

Remove ALL files from folder to provide a clean slate for update process

rm -f /var/clamav/* (you could skip the -f & confirm every file delete for safety)

Current Clamav version is clamav-0.97.6

rpm -q clamav

clamav-0.97.6-1.el5.rf

Update clamav to latest version if required it will Not download clamav-db

yum update clamav

Restart clamd

service clamd start

Update signatures

freshclam -v (--no-dns can be used if just -v fails)

Check output from freshclam to make sure update completes sucessfully.

Current working dir is /var/clamav
Max retries == 6
ClamAV update process started at Sun Feb 24 15:14:02 2013
Using IPv6 aware code
Querying current.cvd.clamav.net
TTL: 900
Software version from DNS: 0.97.6
main.cvd version from DNS: 54
main.cvd is up to date (version: 54, sigs: 1044387, f-level: 60, builder: sven)
daily.cvd version from DNS: 16731
daily.cld is up to date (version: 16731, sigs: 829102, f-level: 63, builder: guitar)
bytecode.cvd version from DNS: 214
bytecode.cvd is up to date (version: 214, sigs: 41, f-level: 63, builder: neo)

Finally & to be absolutely sure signal-event post-update; signal-event reboot, then go through the logs post reboot to make sure everything started correctly. This is not necessary for this procedure but doesn't hurt.