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There are several easy ways to update Curator. To see if Curator needs an update, check the status of your Curator instance on the homepage of the backend, or on the System Upgrade page. The “Current Version” will show what software version Curator is currently running and the “Latest Version” will show the latest release available. Attention: We recommend taking a Curator Backup before an upgrade. More details can be found here.

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Testing Upgrades in a Non-Production Environment

Before upgrading a production instance, we strongly recommend validating the upgrade against a separate dev or staging instance that mirrors production. This catches version-specific issues against your actual data and configuration before they affect end users. A standard Curator license covers up to three instances, so a dedicated non-production instance is available at no additional cost in most cases. The recommended workflow is:
  1. Export production data. From the production instance, navigate to Settings > Curator > Import/Export and run a full export. Download the resulting archive.
  2. Stand up a dev instance at the same version as production. Install a fresh Curator instance running the exact same version as production, then use the Import/Export tool on the dev instance to import the archive from step 1. The dev instance should now closely match production.
  3. Upgrade and validate the dev instance. Perform the upgrade on the dev instance using whichever method you plan to use in production (One-click, Manual, or API). Once the upgrade completes, exercise the integrations and pages most critical to your users — Tableau, Power BI, or ThoughtSpot dashboards, SSO sign-in, scheduled syncs, and any custom themes or pages. Confirm everything renders and behaves as expected.
  4. Back up and upgrade production. Only after the dev upgrade is validated, take a full Curator Backup of production and then run the same upgrade against production.
If the dev upgrade surfaces an issue, you can iterate on the dev instance without disrupting end users, and report findings to InterWorks Support before touching production.

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Upgrading Curator

One-click Upgrade:
  1. Login to the backend of your Curator instance (e.g. https://curator.example.com/backend).
  2. Navigate to the Settings > Curator > System Upgrade section using the left-hand menu.
  3. Click the “Start One-click Upgrade” button.
Manual Upgrade:
  1. Login to the backend of your Curator instance (e.g. https://curator.example.com/backend).
  2. Navigate to the Settings > Curator > System Upgrade section using the left-hand menu.
  3. Click the “Manual Upgrade” button to display the Manual Upgrade links in the release notes section at the bottom of the page.
  4. Click the link of the version you wish to upgrade to, this will download a .zip file containing the upgrade contents.
  5. Upload the .zip file you just downloaded to the “Upgrade Zip Archive” section and click the “Submit” button.
Curator API:
  1. Login to the backend of your Curator instance (e.g. https://curator.example.com/backend).
  2. Navigate to the Settings > Curator > API Keys section using the left-hand menu.
  3. Select an existing key or create a new key
  4. If creating a new key, save the key.
  5. From the REST API dropdowns, select ‘Portal’ in the left dropdown and ‘Upgrade’ in the right dropdown.
  6. Click the link that was generated below the drop-downs.
  7. This will open a new tab, when upgrade is successful a small success text display will populate.

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Troubleshooting

Having Issues With the Upgrade? Try our Upgrade Troubleshooting Documentation.

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PHP Version Compatibility

The System Upgrade page automatically checks your server’s PHP version against each release’s minimum PHP requirement. If your server’s PHP version is too old for a given release:
  • The Upgrade button for that release will be disabled and shown in red as “PHP X.X+ Required”.
  • An exclamation icon will appear next to the version number.
  • In the Manual Upgrade download column, a warning note will appear: “Requires PHP X.X+ — upgrade PHP before installing”.
  • If you attempt a one-click upgrade to an incompatible release, the confirmation dialog will block the upgrade and direct you to update PHP first.
To resolve this, upgrade your server’s PHP version before upgrading Curator. See our Dependency Updates page for platform-specific instructions.

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Database Version Compatibility

Starting with 2026.06-01, Curator also checks your server’s MySQL or MariaDB version against each release’s minimum database requirement. Older database versions are no longer compatible with the underlying framework. If your server’s database version is too old for a given release, the upgrade will be blocked and you will see an error similar to:
ERROR: Your Curator server’s MariaDB version (10.3.39) is too old. You need MariaDB 10.5 or newer before upgrading Curator. Reach out to Curator support if you need help with this.
The minimum supported versions are MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB 10.5. To resolve this, upgrade your database engine before upgrading Curator. See the Database Dependencies by Curator Version section of our Dependency Updates page for the version table and platform-specific upgrade instructions.

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Multi-version Upgrades (4+ versions)

We recommend upgrading no more than 3 versions at a time. If you plan to make an upgrade to a Curator instance that is more than 4 versions out-of-date, use the version-specific upgrades on the upgrade page, instead of the “One-click upgrade”.

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Common Upgrade Gotchas

When planning an upgrade — especially when jumping several versions — keep the following in mind. Most of these are covered in more detail elsewhere in the docs; this list is a quick pre-upgrade checklist so you know what to watch for.
  • PHP version requirement — Each release declares a minimum PHP version. The System Upgrade page disables the upgrade button (showing “PHP X.X+ Required” in red) and blocks one-click upgrades if your server’s PHP is too old. Upgrade PHP first. See the PHP Version Compatibility section above and the Dependency Updates page.
  • Database version requirement — Starting with 2026.06-01, the upgrade is also blocked if your MySQL or MariaDB version is too old (minimums are MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB 10.5). Upgrade your database engine first. See the Database Version Compatibility section above.
  • Upgrading too many versions at once — Skipping more than 3 versions in a single step is not recommended. For instances more than 4 versions out-of-date, use the version-specific Manual Upgrade download links and step through intermediate versions in batches of three or fewer. See Multi-version Upgrades above.
  • Database migrations not applied — If the upgrade completes but new features appear missing or the system behaves unexpectedly, the database migrations may not have finished. You can safely re-run them multiple times; follow the steps in Updating the Curator Database (Running Migrations).
  • Stale cache after upgrade — Unexpected behavior immediately after an upgrade is often a stale cache. Ask end users to hard-refresh their browser (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R). To flush Curator’s server-side cache, use the Clear Cache button in the backend, or append ?cache=clear to any Curator page URL.
  • Authentication and session changes — Some releases adjust session handling or SSO sign-in. If users are unexpectedly signed out or cannot authenticate after an upgrade, review the release notes for any intermediate versions you skipped and consult the Upgrade Troubleshooting guide.
  • Always upgrade non-production first — Validate the upgrade against a dev or staging instance before touching production. See Testing Upgrades in a Non-Production Environment above.