Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for stage upgrades in a network. The system generates graph-data structured based representations of devices in the network, wherein respective attributes of the representations is selected based on respective services provided by the devices to tenants in the network and identities of respective tenants serviced by the devices. Next, the system generates a graph showing a distribution of the devices in the network according to the representations, wherein the representations are interconnected in the graph based on service roles of associated devices with respect to tenants in the network and other devices associated with the tenants. The system then schedules an upgrade of devices based on the graph, the upgrade being scheduled in stages, each stage including devices selected for upgrade in that stage, wherein the devices for each stage are selected by identifying devices having respective representations assigned to that specific stage.