Preparing for the upgrade

Complete the following steps before you start the upgrade to make sure your environment is ready.

Verify that the ProductRelease status is Ready before proceeding.
```
kubectl get productrelease -n iqstudio-operator
```

Extract the upgrader bundle.

tar -xzvf iqstudio-upgrader-v<new-version>.tar.gz

Navigate to the extracted directory.
```
cd iqstudio-upgrader-v<new-version>
```
Prepare the configuration file by copying the template and populating all required fields.
```
cp iqstudio-install.conf.template iqstudio-install.conf
```
Alternatively, you can use an existing configuration file. If you choose this option, copy the file into the upgrader directory.
```
cp /path/to/previous-install/iqstudio-install.conf ./iqstudio-install.conf
```

Edit the configuration file to update the following values in the configuration file. Incorrect or missing values can cause the upgrade to fail.

Field	Description	Options
Container registry
`REGISTRY_ENDPOINT`	Container registry endpoint.	Yes
`REGISTRY_USER`	Registry username.	Yes
`REGISTRY_PASSWORD`	Registry password.	Yes
Certificate files
`CA_CERT_FILE`	CA certificate file path.	Yes
`TLS_CERT_FILE`	TLS certificate file path.	Yes
`TLS_KEY_FILE`	TLS private key file path.	Yes
Application configuration
`DEFAULT_FQDN`	Default fully qualified domain name.	Yes
`LOADBALANCER_IP`	Load balancer IP address.	Yes
Storage classes
`SC_DELETE`	Storage class for delete policy.	Yes
`SC_RETAIN`	Storage class for retain policy.	Yes
Kubernetes context
`KUBE_CONTEXT`	Kubernetes context name.	No
Bundle checksum validation
`BUNDLE_EXPECTED_CHECKSUM`	Expected bundle checksum.	Example value: `c5e17e8e32a8c7efa224a0fab82d8d1a9ef49245fa4228fd9faef8174ff9b4e3`
Gitea registry
`GITEA_LB_IP`	Gitea load balancer IP address. Set this value only (when `REGISTRY_ENDPOINT` contains `gitea`).	Example value: `192.168.23.40`. Leave it empty if not using Gitea
DNS configuration
`DNS_CONFIGURED_EXTERNALLY`	Specifies whether a wildcard DNS record (`*.DEFAULT_FQDN` mapped to the load balancer IP) is already configured externally. When set to `yes`, the installer skips CoreDNS configuration; when set to `no`, the installer configures CoreDNS automatically.	Yes or No
`PATCH_DNS_ON_FAILURE`	Specifies whether the installer attempts to patch CoreDNS automatically if DNS verification fails after configuration.	Yes or No

For more information about editing configuration file, see Editing the configuration file.

Verify that your certificate files are readable.

ls -la /path/to/ca.crt /path/to/tls.crt /path/to/tls.key

The upgrader directory is ready, and the configuration file contains the required values.