diff --git a/aodh/api/app.py b/aodh/api/app.py
index 025bf2ae..c88fc6ba 100644
--- a/aodh/api/app.py
+++ b/aodh/api/app.py
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ from aodh.api import hooks
 from aodh.api import middleware
 from aodh.i18n import _
 from aodh.i18n import _LW
-from aodh import service
 from aodh import storage
 
 
@@ -41,6 +40,7 @@ OPTS = [
                help="Configuration file for WSGI definition of API."
                ),
     cfg.IntOpt('api_workers', default=1,
+               min=1,
                help='Number of workers for aodh API server.'),
 ]
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ def setup_app(pecan_config=None):
 
     # NOTE(sileht): pecan debug won't work in multi-process environment
     pecan_debug = CONF.api.pecan_debug
-    if service.get_workers('api') != 1 and pecan_debug:
+    if cfg.CONF.api_workers != 1 and pecan_debug:
         pecan_debug = False
         LOG.warning(_LW('pecan_debug cannot be enabled, if workers is > 1, '
                         'the value is overrided with False'))
@@ -123,9 +123,8 @@ def build_server():
         LOG.info(_("serving on http://%(host)s:%(port)s") % (
                  {'host': host, 'port': port}))
 
-    workers = service.get_workers('api')
     serving.run_simple(cfg.CONF.api.host, cfg.CONF.api.port,
-                       app, processes=workers)
+                       app, processes=cfg.CONF.api_workers)
 
 
 def _app():
diff --git a/aodh/service.py b/aodh/service.py
index bb091d45..c53192e0 100644
--- a/aodh/service.py
+++ b/aodh/service.py
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ from aodh.i18n import _
 from aodh import messaging
 from aodh import rpc
 from aodh import storage
-from aodh import utils
 
 
 OPTS = [
@@ -105,21 +104,6 @@ cfg.CONF.register_cli_opts(CLI_OPTS, group="service_credentials")
 LOG = log.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-class WorkerException(Exception):
-    """Exception for errors relating to service workers."""
-
-
-def get_workers(name):
-    workers = (cfg.CONF.get('%s_workers' % name) or
-               utils.cpu_count())
-    if workers and workers < 1:
-        msg = (_("%(worker_name)s value of %(workers)s is invalid, "
-                 "must be greater than 0") %
-               {'worker_name': '%s_workers' % name, 'workers': str(workers)})
-        raise WorkerException(msg)
-    return workers
-
-
 def prepare_service(argv=None):
     oslo_i18n.enable_lazy()
     log.register_options(cfg.CONF)
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5132c0fc..b5a26a3b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ keystonemiddleware>=1.5.0
 lxml>=2.3
 oslo.context>=0.2.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.db>=1.12.0 # Apache-2.0
-oslo.config>=1.11.0 # Apache-2.0
+oslo.config>=1.15.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.i18n>=1.5.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.log>=1.2.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.policy>=0.5.0 # Apache-2.0