Prepare for an ONTAP upgrade with Upgrade Advisor or Upgrade Health Checker

02/26/2026 Contributors

PDFs

You can use Upgrade Advisor in Active IQ Digital Advisor or Upgrade Health Checker to automatically generate an upgrade report specific to your environment and cluster configuration. Both tools provide intelligence that helps you plan your upgrade, identify blockers and warnings, and minimize uncertainty and risk.

Prepare to upgrade with Upgrade Advisor

Upgrade Advisor identifies issues in your environment that can be resolved by upgrading to a newer version of ONTAP and provides a report of issues you might need to be aware of in the ONTAP version you're upgrading to. Upgrade Advisor also provides a recommended upgrade path and generates an upgrade plan specific to your cluster's configuration.

Upgrade Advisor is especially suitable for users with a smaller environment who prefer a cloud-based, UI-centered experience.

Before you begin

An active SupportEdge Services contract for Digital Advisor, is required to use Upgrade Advisor.
AutoSupport must be enabled for Upgrade Advisor to automatically access the AutoSupport logs required to generate an upgrade plan. If you have not enabled AutoSupport, you can manually upload AutoSupport files.

Steps

Launch Active IQ Digital Advisor
In Digital Advisor view any risks associated with your cluster and manually take corrective actions.

Risks included in the SW Config Change, HW Config Change, and HW Replacement categories need to be resolved prior to performing an ONTAP upgrade.
Review the recommended upgrade path and generate your upgrade plan.

What's next

You should review the ONTAP release notes for the target ONTAP release recommended for your cluster by Upgrade Advisor; then you should follow the plan generated by Upgrade Advisor to upgrade your cluster.
You should reboot the SP or BMC before the upgrade begins.

Prepare to upgrade with Upgrade Health Checker

Upgrade Health Checker is an onsite tool suitable for users with large or complex environments, limited access to the internet, or existing automation and orchestration frameworks. A SupportEdge contract is not required to use Upgrade Health Checker.