diff --git a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04-15.2.9.yaml b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04-15.2.9.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3aa60374f87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04-15.2.9.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+os_type: ubuntu
+os_version: "20.04"
+
+tasks:
+- cephadm:
+    image: docker.io/ceph/ceph:v15.2.9
+    cephadm_branch: v15.2.9
+    cephadm_git_url: https://github.com/ceph/ceph
+    # avoid --cap-add=PTRACE + --privileged for older cephadm versions
+    allow_ptrace: false
+
+roles:
+- - mon.a
+  - mon.c
+  - mgr.y
+  - osd.0
+  - osd.1
+  - osd.2
+  - osd.3
+  - client.0
+#  - ceph.rgw.realm.zone.a  # CLI change in v16 pacific
+  - node-exporter.a
+  - alertmanager.a
+- - mon.b
+  - mgr.x
+  - osd.4
+  - osd.5
+  - osd.6
+  - osd.7
+  - client.1
+  - prometheus.a
+  - grafana.a
+  - node-exporter.b
+  - ceph.iscsi.iscsi.a
diff --git a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04.yaml b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04.yaml
index f9bd9879267..b26227dc88b 100644
--- a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04.yaml
+++ b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/1-start-distro/1-start-ubuntu_20.04.yaml
@@ -8,3 +8,27 @@ tasks:
     cephadm_git_url: https://github.com/ceph/ceph
     # avoid --cap-add=PTRACE + --privileged for older cephadm versions
     allow_ptrace: false
+
+roles:
+- - mon.a
+  - mon.c
+  - mgr.y
+  - osd.0
+  - osd.1
+  - osd.2
+  - osd.3
+  - client.0
+#   - ceph.rgw.realm.zone.a # Disabled, needs 15.2.4 as an upgrade start
+  - node-exporter.a
+  - alertmanager.a
+- - mon.b
+  - mgr.x
+  - osd.4
+  - osd.5
+  - osd.6
+  - osd.7
+  - client.1
+  - prometheus.a
+  - grafana.a
+  - node-exporter.b
+#  - ceph.iscsi.iscsi.a  # needs later start point
diff --git a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/fixed-2.yaml b/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/fixed-2.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index a0ec7a192cb..00000000000
--- a/qa/suites/rados/cephadm/upgrade/fixed-2.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,32 +0,0 @@
-roles:
-- - mon.a
-  - mon.c
-  - mgr.y
-  - osd.0
-  - osd.1
-  - osd.2
-  - osd.3
-  - client.0
-#   - ceph.rgw.realm.zone.a # Disabled, needs 15.2.4 as an upgrade start
-  - node-exporter.a
-  - alertmanager.a
-- - mon.b
-  - mgr.x
-  - osd.4
-  - osd.5
-  - osd.6
-  - osd.7
-  - client.1
-  - prometheus.a
-  - grafana.a
-  - node-exporter.b
-  - ceph.iscsi.iscsi.a
-openstack:
-- volumes: # attached to each instance
-    count: 4
-    size: 10 # GB
-overrides:
-  ceph:
-    conf:
-      osd:
-        osd shutdown pgref assert: true
diff --git a/qa/tasks/cephadm.py b/qa/tasks/cephadm.py
index 3be9a3686ec..19634c73ccd 100644
--- a/qa/tasks/cephadm.py
+++ b/qa/tasks/cephadm.py
@@ -573,7 +573,7 @@ def ceph_mgrs(ctx, config):
         if nodes:
             _shell(ctx, cluster_name, remote, [
                 'ceph', 'orch', 'apply', 'mgr',
-                str(len(nodes) + 1) + ';' + ';'.join(nodes)]
+                str(len(nodes)) + ';' + ';'.join(nodes)]
             )
         for mgr, i in daemons.items():
             remote, id_ = i