Answer

PROBLEM

• A definition in the engine is corrupt and is not allowing the Auto updates to complete successfully
• Items will land in the Failed mails folder when the Engine will fail to Initialize

ENVIRONMENT

• GFI MailEssentials
• All supported environments

SOLUTION

There are two ways to initiate the update.

Solution 1

1. Navigate to the following directory <GFI MailEssentials installation path>\GFI\MailEssentials\Updater\Avira and delete the following files:

• avira_current_revision.txt
• avira_current_revision.txt.checked
• avira_current_revision.txt.tmp

1. Open services.msc and restart the GFI MailEssentials AV Scan Engine and GFI MailEssentials Autoupdater service 
2. Open GFI MailEssentials configuration and navigate  to  Email Security > Virus Scanning Engines > Avira > Updates.
3. Click Download Updates and click Apply.
4. Verify that the definitions successfully installed on the Update status section

Solution 2
If the above steps do not update the definitions a manual update is required in order to clear the possible corrupt definitions out of the GFI MailEssentials directories. Follow the steps below in order to complete the manual update process.

1. Open a browser and navigate to http://cdnupdate.gfi.com/  
2. Select the files that you need to update  /incav2/avira/c1/avira_current_version_c1.zip.  
3. Open the service.msc and stop the SMTP or transport service. (Note this will stop mail flow and queue the messages in Exchange until restarted).
4. In services.msc console locate and stop all services related to GFI MailEssentials.
5. Extract the zip file to the <GFI MailEssentials installation path>\GFI\MailEssentials\Updater\Avira (overwrite when prompted)     
6. Browse to <GFI MailEssentials installation path>\GFI\MailEssentials\Updater\Avira
7. Locate the zip file avira.zip.  
8. Extract the avira.zip to the following locations <GFI MailEssentials installation path>\GFI\MailEssentials\AntiVirus\avira and <GFI MailEssentials installation path>\GFI\MailEssentials\AntiVirus\backup\avira overwrite when prompted  
9. Restart all services stopped in step 3 and 4.
10. Verify that the definitions are showing the new version

CAUSE

• The definitions files were corrupted and that can cause update failures.
• Third party antivirus or backup scanning of the GFI MailEssentials folders can corrupt definitions.
• Content filter type Hardware firewalls can corrupt the MD5 checksum during the update process please verify the proper exclusions are in your hardware firewall for successful updates.
• Please see the following article for the current update sites needed to be excluded in your firewall: https://www.gfi.com/support/products/gfi-mailessentials/What-sites-are-used-for-GFI-Product-Updates