Installation, Upgrade & Uninstall Testing

First and last impressions of your product happen in the installer. Use clean VMs/containers with snapshots for every run.

Matrix

Fresh install · upgrade N-1→N (and N-2, LTS→latest) · skip-version upgrade · downgrade/rollback · repair/reinstall · uninstall/purge · side-by-side versions · per-user vs system-wide · air-gapped/offline · silent/unattended · interrupted install (kill, power loss) · re-run same installer (idempotent).

Checklist

Automation recipes

# Debian package in a clean container
docker run --rm -v $PWD:/pkg debian:12 bash -c 'apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y /pkg/app_2.0.0_amd64.deb && app --version && apt-get purge -y app && test ! -e /usr/bin/app'
# Upgrade path matrix
for from in 1.8.0 1.9.3 2.0.0-rc1; do ./install.sh $from && seed_data && ./install.sh 2.0.0 && ./verify_data.sh; done
# Helm
helm lint chart/ && helm template chart/ | kubeconform -strict -summary
helm upgrade --install app chart/ --atomic --wait --timeout 5m && helm rollback app 1
# Windows silent
msiexec /i App.msi /qn /l*v install.log ; msiexec /x App.msi /qn
# npm/pip package sanity
npm pack && npm i -g ./pkg-1.0.0.tgz && pkg --version ; python -m venv v && v/bin/pip install dist/*.whl && v/bin/python -c "import pkg"

Docker image: non-root user, minimal base, healthcheck, reproducible tags, docker run with read-only FS, multi-arch manifests, image scan (iac-container-security-testing).

Failure injection

Kill installer at 10/50/90%, fill disk, revoke network mid-download, corrupt package, expire cert, pre-existing conflicting version, locked files/running app → expect atomic result: fully old or fully new, never half-installed.

Related

compatibility-testing, desktop-app-testing, data-migration-testing, cloud-infrastructure-testing, release-readiness-testing