Patent ID: 7363657

Claim:
In a data processing system including at least one client, a first file server coupled to the client for data access of the client to at least one file in the first file server, and at least a second file server coupled to the first file server for data access of the second file server to the file in the first file server, the second file server being programmed with a virus checker program, the virus checker program being executable by the second file server to perform an anti-virus scan upon file data in random access memory of the second file server, a method compnsing: the first file server responding to a request from the client for access to the file in the first file server by determining that an anti-virus scan of the file should be performed, and initiating the anti-virus scan of the file by sending to the second file server a request for the anti-virus scan including a specification of the file, and then the second file server responding to the request for the anti-virus scan by invoking the virus checker program to perform an anti-virus scan of the specified file by obtaining file data of the file from the first file server and storing the file data of the file into the random access memory of the second file server and performing the anti-virus scan upon the file data of the file in the random access memory.