---
title: 'Scanner Settings'
url: 'https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/scanner-settings'
markdown: 'https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/scanner-settings.md'
date: '2026-09-24'
description: 'Normally high server load is caused by the anti-virus backup scanner (ClamAV-clamscan) when the primary scanner (ClamAV-clamd) is down. By default Amavis will fall back to the backup scanner when the primary scanner is down or having problems. Note that the clamscan binary is NOT the same as c…'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - docs
  tag:
    - amavis
---

[](#)  [ Basics ](https://docs.danami.com/warden/)     [ Settings ](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings)     [ Content Filter ](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter)      Scanner Settings    

# Scanner Settings

> > > > > Normally high server load is caused by the anti-virus backup scanner (ClamAV-clamscan) when the primary scanner (ClamAV-clamd) is down. By default Amavis will fall back to the backup scanner when the primary scanner is down or having problems. Note that the clamscan binary is NOT the same as clamd. Clamd is the highly efficient daemon version of ClamAV while clamscan is the inefficient non-demonized version. ClamAV-clamscan is not suitable as a backup scanner on busy servers because the ClamAV signatures have to be loaded into memory for every scan therefor we recommend that admins set the anti-virus scanners backup to none to disable the backup scanner if you are sending large amounts of mail.

**Anti-virus scanners** - `av_scanners`
The list of primary anti-virus scanners (comma separated).
Default: ClamAV-clamd

**Anti-virus scanners backup** - `av_scanners_backup`
The list of backup anti-virus scanners to use if the primary scanners fail (comma separated).
Default: ClamAV-clamscan

**banned\_rules** - `banned_rules`
The list of banned rules (comma separated). Added rules will be accessible under the server, domain, and mailbox level policies. Rule keys should only contain letters, numbers, and underscores. The `'DEFAULT' => $banned_filename_re` rule points to the global `amavisd.conf` banned rules and should be included at all times.
Default: 'DEFAULT' => $banned\_filename\_re

Examples:

```
# Allow all Microsoft Office documents.
'ALLOW_MS_OFFICE'   => new_RE([qr'.\.(doc|docx|xls|xlsx|ppt|pptx)$'i => 0])

# Block archivies
'BLOCK_COMPRESS'    => new_RE([qr'.\.(zip|7z|gz|bz2|tar|rar)$'i => 1])
```

## Related Pages

- [Filter Settings](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/filter-settings "Filter Settings")
- [Policy Banks](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/policy-banks "Policy Banks")
- [Milter Settings](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/milter-settings "Milter Settings")
- [Policy Settings](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/policy-settings "Policy Settings")
- [Policy Migrator](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/policy-migrator "Policy Migrator")

 [ ](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/milter-settings) [](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/policy-settings)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [Contentfilter](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter.md)
- Previous: [Milter Settings](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/milter-settings.md)
- Next: [Policy Settings](https://docs.danami.com/warden/settings/contentfilter/policy-settings.md)