Upgradeable component detection and validation

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the operations of:

• launching an instance of an upgrade service on a virtual machine of a host as part of an upgrade process;
• initializing, by the upgrade service, one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide access to a component detection subsystem and a validation subsystem;
• using at least the component detection subsystem to determine and return a list of upgradeable components that are upgradeable on the host by accessing one or more internal APIs of the virtual machine that provide more information than available through external APIs of the virtual machine;
• receiving input from a user interacting with the upgrade process selecting one or more of the upgradeable components of the list;
• using at least the validation subsystem to perform compatibility testing of the selected components prior to upgrading the selected components on the host by performing a plurality of compatibility tests of the selected components including for each of the selected components, testing compatibility of an upgrade for the selected component with existing host software, host hardware, or another one of the selected components;
• and
• providing the user with an opportunity to review expectations regarding success or failure of upgrading the selected components by causing a plurality of validation test results to be presented to the user via a user interface based on the plurality of compatibility tests of the selected component.

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of components of a host including:
• a hypervisor;
• a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or firmware;
• and
• a virtual machine running on the hypervisor, wherein the virtual machine includes externally-facing application programming interface (APIs) and internal APIs, wherein the internal APIs provide more information for making a determination regarding availability of upgradable components of the plurality of components and compatibility of the upgradable components with an external environment of the virtual machine than is available via the externally-facing APIs;
• a processing resource;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium, coupled to the processing resource, having stored therein instructions of an upgrade service for performing an upgrade process, wherein the instructions when executed by the processing resource cause the processing resource to:
• initialize one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide access to a component detection subsystem and a validation subsystem;
• use at least the component detection subsystem to determine and return a list of upgradeable components of the plurality of components that are upgradeable on the host by accessing the internal APIs;
• receive input from a user interacting with the upgrade process selecting one or more of the upgradeable components of the list;
• use at least the validation subsystem to perform compatibility testing of the selected components prior to upgrading the selected components on the host by performing a plurality of compatibility tests of the selected components including for each of the selected components, testing compatibility of an upgrade for the selected component with existing host software, host hardware, or another one of the selected components, wherein the plurality of compatibility tests provide information regarding expected success or failure of upgrading the selected components;
• and
• provide the user with an opportunity to review the expectations regarding success or failure of upgrading the selected components by causing a plurality of validation test results to be presented to the user via a user interface based on the plurality of compatibility tests of the selected component.