diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker.yml b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
index 5361017934..7140cd7dd8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ jobs:
   versioning_dev:
     # compute versioning file from python setup.py
     # upload as artifact
-    # (also used in release.yml)
     if: github.repository == 'Project-MONAI/MONAI'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 0214ae4cf6..34f8390fa9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -87,18 +87,18 @@ jobs:
   versioning:
     # compute versioning file from python setup.py
     # upload as artifact
-    # (also used in docker.yml)
     if: github.repository == 'Project-MONAI/MONAI'
     needs: packaging
-    container:
-      image: localhost:5000/local_monai:latest
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, build_only]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
         # full history so that we can git describe
         with:
-          ref: main
           fetch-depth: 0
+      - name: Set up Python 3.8
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: 3.8
       - shell: bash
         run: |
           git describe
@@ -118,11 +118,9 @@ jobs:
   release_tag_docker:
     if: github.repository == 'Project-MONAI/MONAI'
     needs: versioning
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, build_only]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-        with:
-          ref: main
       - name: Download version
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v2
         with:
@@ -136,6 +134,13 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           echo "$RELEASE_VERSION"
           cat _version.py
+      - if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
+        name: Install latest docker
+        run: |
+          curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
+          sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu  $(lsb_release -cs)  stable"
+          sudo apt-get update
+          sudo apt-get install docker-ce
       - if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
         name: build with the tag
         env:
@@ -145,14 +150,14 @@ jobs:
           # get tag info for versioning
           mv _version.py monai/
           # version checks
-          target="\"version\": \"$RELEASE_VERSION\""
-          echo $target
-          local=`grep "\"version\"" monai/_version.py
-          echo $local
-          if [ "$local" = "$target" ]; then
+          target=" \"version\": \"$RELEASE_VERSION\""
+          local=`grep "\"version\"" monai/_version.py`
+          echo "$target"
+          echo "$local"
+          if [[ "$local" == "$target" ]]; then
             echo "matched version string"
           else
-            echo "unmatched version string, please check the main branch"
+            echo "unmatched version string, please check the tagging branch."
             exit 1
           fi
           # remove flake package as it is not needed on hub.docker.com