diff --git a/jobs/templates/heat-bm-cicd-pike-contrail-sl.yml b/jobs/templates/heat-bm-cicd-pike-contrail-sl.yml
index d4332b2..af9f64b 100644
--- a/jobs/templates/heat-bm-cicd-pike-contrail-sl.yml
+++ b/jobs/templates/heat-bm-cicd-pike-contrail-sl.yml
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@
         name: BATCH_SIZE
         trim: 'false'
     - bool:
-        default: false
+        default: true
         description: Whether to perform dist-upgrade on virtual nodes during deployment
         name: DIST_UPGRADE_NODES
     pipeline-scm: