Pre-Upgrade Checklist

Checklist discipline. Every item is meant to be answered yes / no with evidence. Items marked critical are non-negotiable; items marked warn are judgement calls; items marked info are baseline expectations.

Items

• Release notes read for both VyOS and FRR (severity: critical)
• Compatibility verified for all peers and downstreams (severity: critical)
• Backup of current configuration taken off-router (severity: critical)
• Rollback path documented (previous image available) (severity: critical)
• Out-of-band access tested (severity: critical)
• Canary router upgraded first and validated (severity: warn)
• Upgrade window scheduled during low traffic (severity: info)
• Stakeholders notified (severity: info)
• Maintenance mode / drain procedure ready (severity: info)
• Upgrade runbook reviewed and understood (severity: info)

Severity legend

• info: baseline expectation
• warn: judgement call; production-grade depends on context
• critical: non-negotiable; a missed critical item is a release blocker

Evidence retention

The completed checklist is evidence for the change ticket, the audit, and the post-incident review. Store it where it can be recovered if the router is lost.