diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
index c9ea294461..f8fbce53b3 100755
--- a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 source ci-automation/vendor_test.sh
 
-if [ "$*" != "" ] && [ "$*" != "*" ] && [ "$*" != "cl.update.payload" ]; then
+# The last check is not perfect (if both tests are rerun, it will only look at the name of the second test) but hopefully still good enough to prevent wrong usage
+if [ "$*" != "" ] && [ "$*" != "*" ] && [[ "$*" != *"cl.update.payload" ]]; then
     echo "1..1" > "${CIA_TAPFILE}"
     echo "not ok - all qemu update tests" >> "${CIA_TAPFILE}"
     echo "  ---" >> "${CIA_TAPFILE}"
@@ -30,8 +31,8 @@ else
     copy_from_buildcache "images/${CIA_ARCH}/${CIA_VERNUM}/flatcar_test_update.gz" tmp/
 fi
 
-if [ -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin ] ; then
-    echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: Using existing ./tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin for testing update to ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) from previous ${CIA_CHANNEL} ++++"
+if [ -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin ] && [ -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_first_dual.bin ] ; then
+    echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: Using existing ./tmp/flatcar_production_image_{previous,first_dual}.bin for testing update to ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) from previous ${CIA_CHANNEL} and first dual-arch Stable release ++++"
 else
     echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: downloading flatcar_production_image_previous.bin from previous ${CIA_CHANNEL} ++++"
     rm -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
@@ -54,6 +55,11 @@ else
     curl -fsSLO --retry-delay 1 --retry 60 --retry-connrefused --retry-max-time 60 --connect-timeout 20 "https://${CIA_CHANNEL}.release.flatcar-linux.net/${CIA_ARCH}-usr/current${SUFFIX}/flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2"
     mv flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2 tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
     lbunzip2 -k -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
+    echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: downloading flatcar_production_image_first_dual.bin from first dual-arch Stable release ++++"
+    # We fix the release version here to emulate an update from a very old instance. We could have went with the first Flatcar release but that lacked arm64 support.
+    curl -fsSLO --retry-delay 1 --retry 60 --retry-connrefused --retry-max-time 60 --connect-timeout 20 "https://stable.release.flatcar-linux.net/${CIA_ARCH}-usr/3033.2.4/flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2"
+    mv flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2 tmp/flatcar_production_image_first_dual.bin.bz2
+    lbunzip2 -k -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_first_dual.bin.bz2
 fi
 
 bios="${QEMU_BIOS}"
@@ -67,14 +73,41 @@ if [ "${CIA_ARCH}" = "arm64" ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-kola run \
-    --board="${CIA_ARCH}-usr" \
-    --parallel="${QEMU_PARALLEL}" \
-    --platform=qemu \
-    --qemu-bios="${bios}" \
-    --qemu-image=tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin \
-    --tapfile="${CIA_TAPFILE}" \
-    --torcx-manifest="${CIA_TORCX_MANIFEST}" \
-    --update-payload=tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz \
-    --qemu-skip-mangle \
-    cl.update.payload
+query_kola_tests() {
+    shift; # ignore the instance type
+    local arg
+    arg="${*}"
+    if [ "${arg}" != "" ]; then
+      # Empty calls are ok, which mean no tests, but otherwise we restrict the tests to run
+      arg="cl.update.payload"
+    fi
+    kola list --platform=qemu --filter "${arg}"
+}
+
+run_kola_tests() {
+    local instance_type="${1}"; shift;
+    local instance_tapfile="${1}"; shift
+    local image
+    if [ "${instance_type}" = "previous" ]; then
+        image="tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin"
+    elif [ "${instance_type}" = "first_dual" ]; then
+        image="tmp/flatcar_production_image_first_dual.bin"
+    else
+        echo "Wrong instance type ${instance_type}" >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    kola run \
+      --board="${CIA_ARCH}-usr" \
+      --parallel="${QEMU_PARALLEL}" \
+      --platform=qemu \
+      --qemu-bios="${bios}" \
+      --qemu-image="${image}" \
+      --tapfile="${instance_tapfile}" \
+      --torcx-manifest="${CIA_TORCX_MANIFEST}" \
+      --update-payload=tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz \
+      --qemu-skip-mangle \
+      cl.update.payload
+}
+
+run_kola_tests_on_instances "previous" "${CIA_TAPFILE}" "${CIA_FIRST_RUN}" first_dual -- cl.update.payload -- "${@}"