diff --git a/ceilometer/api/app.py b/ceilometer/api/app.py
index f354ae123..9067eaf15 100644
--- a/ceilometer/api/app.py
+++ b/ceilometer/api/app.py
@@ -129,23 +129,15 @@ def get_handler_cls():
 
 def load_app():
     # Build the WSGI app
-    cfg_file = cfg.CONF.api_paste_config
-    LOG.info("WSGI config requested: %s" % cfg_file)
-    if not os.path.exists(cfg_file):
-        # this code is to work around chicken-egg dependency between
-        # ceilometer gate jobs use of devstack and this change.
-        # The gate job uses devstack to run tempest.
-        # devstack does not copy api_paste.ini into /etc/ceilometer because it
-        # is introduced in this change. Once this is merged, we will change
-        # devstack to copy api_paste.ini and once that is merged will remove
-        # this code.
-        root = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
-                                            '..', '..', 'etc', 'ceilometer'
-                                            )
-                               )
-        cfg_file = os.path.join(root, cfg_file)
-    if not os.path.exists(cfg_file):
-        raise Exception('api_paste_config file not found')
+    cfg_file = None
+    cfg_path = cfg.CONF.api_paste_config
+    if not os.path.isabs(cfg_path):
+        cfg_file = CONF.find_file(cfg_path)
+    elif os.path.exists(cfg_path):
+        cfg_file = cfg_path
+
+    if not cfg_file:
+        raise cfg.ConfigFilesNotFoundError([cfg.CONF.api_paste_config])
     LOG.info("Full WSGI config used: %s" % cfg_file)
     return deploy.loadapp("config:" + cfg_file)
 
diff --git a/ceilometer/tests/api/test_app.py b/ceilometer/tests/api/test_app.py
index 94e5fe1ce..5fb483313 100644
--- a/ceilometer/tests/api/test_app.py
+++ b/ceilometer/tests/api/test_app.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import socket
 
+import mock
 from oslo.config import cfg
 from oslo.config import fixture as fixture_config
 
@@ -42,3 +43,9 @@ class TestApp(base.BaseTestCase):
         self.CONF.set_override('host', 'ddddd', group='api')
         server_cls = app.get_server_cls(cfg.CONF.api.host)
         self.assertEqual(server_cls.address_family, socket.AF_INET)
+
+    def test_api_paste_file_not_exist(self):
+        self.CONF.set_override('api_paste_config', 'non-existent-file')
+        with mock.patch.object(self.CONF, 'find_file') as ff:
+            ff.return_value = None
+            self.assertRaises(cfg.ConfigFilesNotFoundError, app.load_app)