# Upgrading Tomcat independently of Cascade CMS

> This article describes the steps needed in order to upgrade the bundled Tomcat installation

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/cascade-administration/installation-and-upgrades/system-configuration/upgrade-tomcat.html
category: Cascade Administration
article-type: how-to
content-kind: article
release-availability: all
tags: installation, upgrades
updated: 2026-10-06

## Before you start

- Verify that you are attempting to upgrade to the same minor version of the Tomcat release that we support. As an example, if the Cascade CMS installer comes bundled with **Tomcat 9.0.33**, you will have the ability to upgrade to **Tomcat 9.0.45** but ***not*** to **Tomcat 9.5** (if it becomes available) or **Tomcat 10.x**.
- To find out the current version of Tomcat that Cascade CMS is using in your environment, go to **Administration** > **Logs and System Information** > **Server Information**.
- If you are unsure whether or not a particular version of Tomcat is supported, please reach out to support [at] hannonhill.com for more information.

## Steps to upgrade Tomcat

> **Note**
>
> The steps below are specific to Linux/*nix installations, but similar steps may be used for other operating systems as well.

1. Stop Cascade CMS.
1. Make a copy of your existing *tomcat* directory and keep it somewhere safe (and outside of the Cascade CMS installation directory). You'll need this to copy and/or reference certain files for the new Tomcat installation. It can also be used to quickly restore the application if the new version of Tomcat fails.
1. Delete the existing *tomcat* folder from within the Cascade CMS installation.
1. Download the newer version of Tomcat (core [zip]) from [https://tomcat.apache.org](https://tomcat.apache.org) and place it where the existing *tomcat* folder was located in the Cascade CMS installation directory.
1. Extract the contents of the zip file. This will produce a folder *apache-tomcat-9.0.45*, for example.
1. Rename the extracted folder from *apache-tomcat-9.0.45* to *tomcat*.
1. Using the backup of your old *tomcat* directory, copy the following files from the *conf* folder into the new *tomcat/conf* folder:
    - *context.xml*
    - *server.xml*
    - *ehcache.properties*
    - *web.xml*
1. Add execute permissions to the new Tomcat scripts (in *tomcat/bin*). Example:
    ```markup
    $ cd /usr/local/cascade/tomcat/bin
    ```

1. Using the backup of your old tomcat directory, copy the *tomcat/webapps/ROOT* folder into the new *tomcat/webapps* directory.
1. Start Cascade CMS.