A systems administrator is following the company's proper removal procedures for several physical servers being taken out of service. The servers have been powered down, disconnected from the network, and moved to a secure storage area to await physical destruction. According to server decommissioning best practices, which of the following is the most critical asset management task to perform at this stage to prevent future security and operational issues?
Update the asset management database to reflect the servers' new status and location.
Ensure the access logs for the secure storage area are filed with the server documentation.
Create a new change management ticket for the final disposal of the servers.
Initiate the process to reclaim any software licenses associated with the servers.
The correct answer is to update the asset management database to reflect the servers' new status and location. This is the most critical asset management task because the database is the authoritative source for all IT assets. Failing to update it can lead to 'ghost assets', where the system believes a server is still active, causing incorrect security compliance reports, wasted software licensing or support contract costs, and confusion during audits. While the other tasks are part of the overall decommissioning process, updating the central asset inventory is the foundational step in asset management that prevents long-term operational and security discrepancies.
Ask Bash
Bash is our AI bot, trained to help you pass your exam. AI Generated Content may display inaccurate information, always double-check anything important.
What is an asset management database?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
What are 'ghost assets' and why are they problematic?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
Why is updating the asset management database considered the most critical step during server decommissioning?