diff --git a/hooks/nova_compute_hooks.py b/hooks/nova_compute_hooks.py
index 3f405592..32e56dba 100755
--- a/hooks/nova_compute_hooks.py
+++ b/hooks/nova_compute_hooks.py
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ from nova_compute_utils import (
     register_configs,
     NOVA_CONF,
     QUANTUM_CONF, NEUTRON_CONF,
-    ceph_config_file, CEPH_SECRET
+    ceph_config_file, CEPH_SECRET,
+    enable_shell, disable_shell
 )
 
 from nova_compute_context import CEPH_SECRET_UUID
@@ -77,7 +78,10 @@ def config_changed():
         initialize_ssh_keys()
 
     if config('enable-resize') is True:
+        enable_shell(user='nova')
         initialize_ssh_keys(user='nova')
+    else:
+        disable_shell(user='nova')
 
     [compute_joined(rid) for rid in relation_ids('cloud-compute')]
 
diff --git a/hooks/nova_compute_utils.py b/hooks/nova_compute_utils.py
index b937938a..10793ce0 100644
--- a/hooks/nova_compute_utils.py
+++ b/hooks/nova_compute_utils.py
@@ -399,3 +399,13 @@ def create_libvirt_secret(secret_file, secret_uuid, key):
     cmd = ['virsh', 'secret-set-value', '--secret', secret_uuid,
            '--base64', key]
     check_call(cmd)
+
+
+def enable_shell(user):
+    cmd = ['usermod', '-s', '/bin/bash', user]
+    check_call(cmd)
+
+
+def disable_shell(user):
+    cmd = ['usermod', '-s', '/bin/false', user]
+    check_call(cmd)