What is the first step to establish configuration management?

What is the first step to establish configuration management?

• A. Take inventory of existing systems and their current configurations
• B. Gather data files into a central repository
• C. Define security policy
• D. Create incident response plan

Answer: (A)

Configuration management starts with an accurate inventory of all assets and their current configurations. This creates the baseline you will manage against, showing what hardware, operating systems, applications, and settings exist, along with versions and patch levels. Knowing this baseline is essential so future updates, configuration changes, and drift can be tracked systematically. Without this first step, you can’t reliably enforce standards or know what needs to be controlled. Centralizing data files, defining security policy, and planning for incidents are important activities, but they support CM after you have a proven inventory and baseline.

Configuration management starts with an accurate inventory of all assets and their current configurations. This creates the baseline you will manage against, showing what hardware, operating systems, applications, and settings exist, along with versions and patch levels. Knowing this baseline is essential so future updates, configuration changes, and drift can be tracked systematically. Without this first step, you can’t reliably enforce standards or know what needs to be controlled. Centralizing data files, defining security policy, and planning for incidents are important activities, but they support CM after you have a proven inventory and baseline.