Most of the free antivirus that are offered for desktop versions are either not compatible or not free for server versions. For example Microsoft Security Essentials that is available for Windows desktop OS (Windows 7, Windows Vista) is not compatible for servers and if you wish to use, enterprise security products from Microsoft, you can have endpoint protection that will also come with System Center Configuration Manager.
More about Endpoint Protection in System Center Configuration Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh508781.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/system-center-2012-r2-configuration-manager/
So Do I have to pay and purchase antivirus for server 2008 R2 /2008/ 2012?
Yet there are free but powerful antivirus such as Clam AV which provides realtime protection and this solution would be ideal, if you do have one or two servers that needs to be protected with an antivirus solution.
http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/
And you can use malwarebyte free edition https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/
Malwarebyte free edition is a on demand scanner, which means free version of malwarebyte does not offer realtime protection. yet powerful antivirus.
So what should I do ? Should I stay with Malwarebyte free version or should I install Clam AV?
Since malwarebytes free version does not offer real time protection, you can use both in a single server. They will not conflict. Having both will give you the following,
Have realtime protection, with claim
When needed you can use malwarebyte to have a scan .
Isn’t that great?
Make sure you have turned on Windows firewall along with Malwrebyte, and claim .
So that is your simple protection for your Windows Server 2003 or 2008 or 2008 R2 or even 2012.
