Upgrade Planning
Plan network device upgrades with automated research, environment gathering, and spreadsheet output.
Plan software upgrades for CUCM, IOS-XE, NX-OS, PAN-OS, FortiGate, and more. Damira researches CVEs and release notes, asks about your environment, then generates an interactive planning spreadsheet.
Prerequisites
- Tier: Starter or above
- VS Code extension installed and connected
How It Works
The upgrade workflow runs in 3 automated stages:
Stage 1: Triage (automatic)
When you mention an upgrade, Damira immediately searches for:
- Release notes for your target version
- Known CVEs affecting your current version
- Recommended upgrade paths
This happens with zero cost — no LLM call, just targeted web search.
Stage 2: Environment Gathering
Gathering runs in two phases:
Phase 1 — Universal fields (code-enforced): Damira checks for product, current version, target version, device count, environment type, maintenance window, and rollback criteria. No LLM call — pure field extraction from your answers. Advances automatically when enough fields are filled (~4 of 7). If you paste a device inventory (hostnames, IPs, versions), Damira auto-detects it and fills multiple fields at once.
Phase 2 — Research-driven follow-ups: If triage found product-specific concerns (critical CVEs, known upgrade caveats), Damira asks up to 3 targeted follow-up questions based on those findings. Then advances to deliverable selection.
Stage 2.5: Deliverable Selection
Before expensive generation begins, Damira presents a numbered menu of deliverables to produce — for example: (1) Pre-check spreadsheet, (2) Upgrade MOP, (3) Change control, (4) Deep research report. Select by number or name.
If you already named a deliverable in your initial request ("write me a MOP for this upgrade"), this step is skipped automatically.
Stage 3: Spreadsheet Generation
Damira generates an interactive .damira.json spreadsheet with:
- Pre-upgrade checks (with commands to run)
- Step-by-step procedure
- Post-upgrade validation
- Rollback procedures
During generation, you see a step-by-step progress indicator (Searching docs → Researching → Generating → Rendering) so you know what's happening during the 10-30 second generation.
Open it in VS Code's built-in spreadsheet editor, or export to Excel.
Examples
Multi-Turn Flow
A typical upgrade conversation looks like:
- You: "Plan a CUCM upgrade from 14 to 15"
- Damira: Shows CVE findings, release notes, asks environment questions
- You: "500 phones, 1 publisher, 4 subscribers, Saturday 2am window, rollback if registration drops below 90%"
- Damira: Presents deliverable menu — spreadsheet, MOP, change control, or deep research
- You: Select "1" for pre-check spreadsheet
- Damira: Generates your upgrade spreadsheet with pre-checks, steps, and rollback
Tips
- Include version numbers in your first message for faster triage
- You can say "just the cert, skip the HA stuff" to narrow scope
- The spreadsheet is interactive — ask Damira to update specific rows
- Export to Excel with the download button for sharing with your team
- After a spreadsheet is generated, ask follow-up questions to modify it: "add a column for priority", "update the rollback section"
- You can work on multiple upgrades concurrently — each gets its own project with isolated state