diff --git a/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml b/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
index ba2564ac..67c74fbc 100644
--- a/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
+++ b/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
@@ -77,6 +77,28 @@
     - nova-install
     - nova-pip-packages
 
+# TODO(mattt): remove once ceph_client role can install ceph packages from pypi
+# This is being done as a temporary workaround since we currently cannot obtain
+#  ceph-related libraries from pypi.  There is work in progress [1] to address
+#  this.
+#  [1] http://tracker.ceph.com/issues/5900
+- name: Link ceph libraries into the venv
+  file:
+    src: "{{ item.name }}"
+    dest: "{{ nova_venv_bin | dirname }}/lib/python2.7/site-packages/{{ item.name | basename }}"
+    state: "{{ item.state }}"
+    force: "yes"
+  with_items:
+    - { state: link, name: "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rados.py" }
+    - { state: link, name: "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rbd.py" }
+  when:
+    - nova_venv_enabled | bool
+    - inventory_hostname in groups['nova_compute']
+    - (cinder_backends_rbd_inuse|bool or nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool is defined)
+  tags:
+    - nova-install
+    - nova-pip-packages
+
 - name: Install pip packages (no venv)
   pip:
     name: "{{ item }}"