Hi @Anandu 

Glad to see you are growing your Nutanix infrastructure. One of the great benefits of this platform is you don’t have to worry when you add new nodes that are different in model, generation or configuration.

You got your process right: Upgrade the existing cluster to the latest NCC/AOS/AHV LTS versions. AOS 5.20.4.6 is your best bet in this case. Once the current cluster is up to date and healthy/resilient (green hearth in main console), simply  follow the “Expand Cluster” procedure described  here: Expanding a Cluster

There’s no risk to your current workloads.

My current version is 5.20. Can I perform direct upgrade to 5.20.4.6 or does it require a multistep upgrade? Performing upgrade requires downtime, which is why I went for imaging the new node with 5.20.

Can anyone specify the risk factors involved in Cluster upgrade and how to mitigate? What is the in-built version of 1065N-G8 node?

Hi @Anandu 
Nutanix Software Upgrades are non-disruptive. No downtime is required, so if you have a healthy cluster and all the software pre-checks pass OK, there’s nothing to worry about. \

Yes, you can directly upgrade from 5.20 to the latest 5.20.x LTS. Please use the LCM menu option in Prism to determine the best compatible version. i recommend you to stay in the 5.20 families in this case. No need to go to 6.x

As per my previous post, just follow the LCM upgrade procedure and let Nutanix handle the rest. Enjoy the magic of Nutanix. :)