How do I determine which OpenStack version I have?

To ensure your OpenStack installation is compatible with the software you intend to run, it's important to determine which OpenStack version you're currently using. However, finding out that information isn't always easy.

When working on Linux, it's not difficult to determine your operating system version. Every Linux distribution writes a file to the /etc directory containing the name of the distribution used, as well as the version of it. With the /etc/os-release file, you can figure out essential details about your Linux distribution.

But determining which OpenStack release you're running can be a challenge. It's even more complicated because the process is different according to the Linux distribution you use, as well as the OpenStack version that runs on top of it. So, while there is no single answer, there are few ways to learn more about your OpenStack version.

One of the easiest approaches is to query the package manager your distribution uses. If, for instance, you installed OpenStack on CentOS, using the RDO distribution, the command yum repolist will reveal the OpenStack repository that is currently in use. As all OpenStack packages come from the OpenStack repository, this shows which OpenStack version you're using.

The result of this command on a CentOS installation of RDO will look like this:

While the above approach works if you installed OpenStack using a package manager, it doesn't work as well if you installed it directly from the Git repositories. If the above approach doesn't work, try using git branch –la to see which Git repositories have been used.

If neither of the above approaches returns useful information, you can query Nova, the core OpenStack component available in all OpenStack clouds. Use nova-manage --version to get a version number, such as 13.1.0. Next, you'll need to look up this version on the project webpage for the Nova project. On this page, you can see that 13.1.0 is part of the Mitaka OpenStack release.