diff --git a/lower-constraints.txt b/lower-constraints.txt
index a0c6381016..006503452a 100644
--- a/lower-constraints.txt
+++ b/lower-constraints.txt
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ simplejson==3.5.1
 six==1.10.0
 smmap==0.9.0
 snowballstemmer==1.2.1
-Sphinx==1.6.2
+Sphinx==1.8.0
 sphinxcontrib-websupport==1.0.1
 sqlalchemy-migrate==0.11.0
 SQLAlchemy==1.0.10
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 3365805b46..2162496ad7 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ openstackdocstheme>=1.18.1 # Apache-2.0
 PyYAML>=3.12 # MIT
 Jinja2>=2.10 # BSD License (3 clause)
 six>=1.10.0 # MIT
-sphinx!=1.6.6,!=1.6.7,>=1.6.2,<2.0.0;python_version=='2.7'  # BSD
-sphinx!=1.6.6,!=1.6.7,>=1.6.2;python_version>='3.4'  # BSD
+sphinx>=1.8.0,<2.0.0;python_version=='2.7' # BSD
+sphinx>=1.8.0,!=2.1.0;python_version>='3.4' # BSD
 reno>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
 coverage!=4.4,>=4.0 # Apache-2.0
 fixtures>=3.0.0 # Apache-2.0/BSD
diff --git a/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh b/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
index 4fecfd9299..fecd206b37 100755
--- a/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
+++ b/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 rm -rf releasenotes/build
 
-sphinx-build -a -E -W \
+sphinx-build -a -E -W --keep-going \
     -d releasenotes/build/doctrees \
     -b html \
     releasenotes/source releasenotes/build/html
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 1a869c2ed5..01732e5617 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -66,6 +66,8 @@ commands = python ./tools/process-templates.py -c
 
 [testenv:releasenotes]
 basepython = python3
+whitelist_externals =
+    bash
 commands = bash -c tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
 
 [testenv:cover]