Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device upgrade method and apparatus. Both NFVI (network functions virtualisation infrastructure) resources used to create a target VNFC (virtualised network function component) and NFVI resources used to scale out/up the target VNFC are fewer than those occupied by a to-be-upgraded VNFC; or both the NFVI resources used to create the target VNFC and the NFVI resources used to scale out/up the target VNFC are fewer than those required for upgrading the to-be-upgraded VNFC.