Overview

Automatic updates to Avira fail, and generate the following error:

Error details: Server response: 503 Service Unavailable

Forcing a full update and doing a manual update by downloading the update files doesn't work.

GFI MailEssentials reports the last update in 2012.

Solution

Ensure that updates can go through HTTP, as described in the Setting MailEssentials to use HTTP to download updates article. Once completed, make sure that there aren't any firewall rules that prevent access to the update servers:

GFI MailEssentials downloads updates from the following locations over HTTP ports 80 and 443:

amazonaws.com
cdnupdate.gfi.com
cdnpatches.gfi.com
db11.spamcatcher.net
meupdate.gfi.com
update.gfi.com
update.gfisoftware.com
spamrazer.gfi.com
support.gfi.com
*.mailshell.net
*.rules.mailshell.net

After completing the above steps, please follow the steps described in the How to manually update Avira article. This will ensure you have the latest definitions installed.

Testing

Open MailEssentials configuration and verify that the Avira Engine has been updated successfully with the latest definitions by navigating to Email Security > Virus Scanning Engines > Avira then opening the Updates tab.

If the issue still persists, please generate the troubleshooting logs as follows:

• Make sure that you have tracing enabled.
• Wait for at least 30 minutes to gather enough information and for the issue to be reproduced.
• Run the troubleshooter:
  1. Start > Programs > GFI MailEssentials > Troubleshooter
  2. Follow the Log Generation Wizard for collecting the required and pertinent information.
  3. Select New Case when completing the log generation to attach the logs to a new case that will be automatically created.

Alternatively, please open a support ticket and attach the logs to that ticket, so that the Support team can investigate the problem.