A method, system, machine-readable storage medium, and apparatus are directed towards upgrading a cluster by bifurcating the cluster into two virtual clusters, an “old” virtual cluster (old active cluster) and a “new” virtual cluster (new standby cluster), and iteratively upgrading members of the old cluster while moving them into the new cluster. While members are added to the new cluster, existing connections and new connections are seamlessly processed by the old cluster. Optionally, state mirroring occurs between the old cluster and the new cluster once the number of members of the old and new clusters are approximately equal. Once a threshold number of members have been transferred to the new cluster, control and processing may be taken over by the new cluster. Transfer of control from the old cluster to the new cluster may be performed by failing over connectivity from the old cluster to the new cluster.