Run the compatibility assessment properly before any upgrade

short · 35 min · Objective 1.3

Task

Assess a real machine for an in-place upgrade across all four categories -- hardware, firmware, storage and applications -- and produce the go/no-go with a reason per category. The assessment is where upgrades succeed or fail, and the progress bar afterwards is the easy part.

Steps

  1. Write lab/upgrade/hardware.csv with header requirement,machine_value,meets,evidence covering processor generation, memory, storage and any enforced requirement such as a security module.
  2. Write lab/upgrade/firmware.csv with header setting,current,required,changeable covering firmware mode, secure boot and the security module state.
  3. Record free space against the published requirement in lab/upgrade/storage.txt, including space for the rollback copy.
  4. Write lab/upgrade/apps.csv with header application,category,supported_on_target,source_of_answer covering at least six installed applications, prioritising security software, backup agents, VPN clients and anything with a driver.
  5. Write lab/upgrade/decision.md giving go or no-go with one sentence per category, and naming what would have to change to reverse a no-go.

Verify

awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" hardware requirement(s)"}' lab/upgrade/hardware.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" firmware setting(s)"}' lab/upgrade/firmware.csv
grep -c . lab/upgrade/storage.txt
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" application(s) assessed"}' lab/upgrade/apps.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $4=="" {n++} END {print n" application(s) with no source"}' lab/upgrade/apps.csv
grep -Eic 'go|no-go' lab/upgrade/decision.md

Four hardware requirements, three firmware settings, six applications each with a source for the answer, and a decision. An application row with no source is an assumption, which is the category that produces failed upgrades.

Notes

Firmware is the category worth checking first, because it converts a large number of "this machine cannot be upgraded" verdicts into a two-minute setting change -- and because a legacy installation needs a conversion before it can move, which is a separate job with its own risks.

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