diff --git a/nova/conf/cinder.py b/nova/conf/cinder.py
index 27346a9f0783..4e2b02549fe2 100644
--- a/nova/conf/cinder.py
+++ b/nova/conf/cinder.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ cinder_group = cfg.OptGroup(
 
 cinder_opts = [
     cfg.StrOpt('catalog_info',
-            default='volumev2:cinderv2:publicURL',
+            default='volumev3:cinderv3:publicURL',
             regex='(\w+):(\w+):(.*?)',
             help="""
 Info to match when looking for cinder in the service catalog.
diff --git a/nova/volume/cinder.py b/nova/volume/cinder.py
index 449f700dfebe..531e32d07da1 100644
--- a/nova/volume/cinder.py
+++ b/nova/volume/cinder.py
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ def cinderclient(context):
     if version == '1':
         raise exception.UnsupportedCinderAPIVersion(version=version)
 
+    if version == '3':
+        # TODO(ildikov): Add microversion support for picking up the new
+        # attach/detach API that was added in 3.27.
+        version = '3.0'
+
     return cinder_client.Client(version,
                                 session=_SESSION,
                                 auth=auth,
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/switch-to-cinder-v3-00bdf83e0937dbe5.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/switch-to-cinder-v3-00bdf83e0937dbe5.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9033a0b96530
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/switch-to-cinder-v3-00bdf83e0937dbe5.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+upgrade:
+  - |
+    Nova is now configured to use the v3 version of the Cinder API. You need to
+    ensure that the v3 version of the Cinder API is available and listed in the
+    service catalog in order to use Nova with the default configuration option.
+
+    The base ``3.0`` version is identical to v2 and it was introduced in the
+    Newton release of OpenStack. In case you need Nova to continue using the v2
+    version you can point it towards that by setting the ``catalog_info``
+    option in the ``nova.conf`` file under the ``cinder`` section, like::
+
+        [cinder]
+        catalog_info = volumev2:cinderv2:publicURL