International audienceIn 2020 the ESRF storage ring will be upgraded to a Hybrid Multi Bend Achromat (HMBA) lattice. The commissioning of the new ring will require dedicated tools, either updated from the existing ones or newly developed. Most of the software and procedures were tested on the existing storage ring before its decommissioning. In particular we present experiments on first-turn steering and beam accumulation, check of magnet polarity and calibration, and injection tuning. The use of a control-system simulator proved to be crucial for the debugging of the software and the development of the new control system, as far as beam measurements and manipulations are concerned
