Based on the https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/windows-11-specifications?r=1#:~:text=System%20firmware-,UEFI,-%2C%20Secure%20Boot%20capable , we have gathered the following checklist to help bringing your Windows 10 to the latest Windows 11.
Pre-Upgrade checklist
- UEFI and Secure Boot. Existing Windows 10 virtual instance should be using
UEFI
andSecure Boot
. Check status with If you would like to migrate frombios
toefi
, please read the following Microsoft document https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt - Guest Operating System. Virtual machine configured operating system should match the running operating system. Check with
vss-cli --columns moref,name,guest_full_name,guest_full_name_run compute vm ls -f name={vm-name}
both must be the same. - Virtual Machine Version. Recommended Virtual Machine version is
vmx-19
. If your instance version is lower, perform an upgrade:vss-cli compute vm set <id> version vmx vmx-19
. - vTPM. vTrusted Platform Module (TPM) should be added to virtual instance:
vss-cli compute vm set <id> tpm mk
. - VBS. Virtualization-Based Security enabled. If disabled, please enable with:
vss-cli compute vm set <id> vbs on
Upgrade process
The following steps were contributed and tested by joint efforts between the Client Success & Service Delivery team (Andrew Tomkins, thank you!) and the ITS Private Cloud team at EIS.
Migrate VM to a "Skylake" Domain (Contact VSS for assistance).
vss-cli --wait compute vm set <id> domain <domain>
Shut down the system (full shut down)
vss-cli --wait compute vm set <id> state shutdown --confirm
Power on the virtual machine (system then picks up new chipset identifiers)
vss-cli --wait compute vm set <id> state on
Proceed with upgrade as you like (e.g. by mounting an ISO or using Windows Update). To mount the ISO execute:
vss-cli --wait compute vm set <id> cd up --backing Windows_11
Migrate the VM back to normal fault domain (optional)
vss-cli --wait compute vm set <id> domain <domain>
Questions
As always please reach out to vss (at) eis.utoronto.ca if you have any questions or experience any issues.