diff --git a/files/ebtables.workaround b/files/ebtables.workaround
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c8af51fad5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/files/ebtables.workaround
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+#
+# This is a terrible, terrible, truly terrible work around for
+# environments that have libvirt < 1.2.11. ebtables requires that you
+# specifically tell it you would like to not race and get punched in
+# the face when 2 run at the same time with a --concurrent flag.
+
+flock -w 300 /var/lock/ebtables.nova /sbin/ebtables.real $@
diff --git a/lib/nova_plugins/functions-libvirt b/lib/nova_plugins/functions-libvirt
index 78c59786d8..045fc8b919 100644
--- a/lib/nova_plugins/functions-libvirt
+++ b/lib/nova_plugins/functions-libvirt
@@ -31,6 +31,11 @@ function install_libvirt {
         fi
         install_package libvirt-bin libvirt-dev
         pip_install_gr libvirt-python
+        if [[ "$EBTABLES_RACE_FIX" == "True" ]]; then
+            # Work around for bug #1501558. We can remove this once we
+            # get to a version of Ubuntu that has new enough libvirt.
+            TOP_DIR=$TOP_DIR $TOP_DIR/tools/install_ebtables_workaround.sh
+        fi
         #pip_install_gr <there-si-no-guestfs-in-pypi>
     elif is_fedora || is_suse; then
         install_package kvm
diff --git a/stackrc b/stackrc
index f400047688..23a4a7c4c4 100644
--- a/stackrc
+++ b/stackrc
@@ -766,6 +766,16 @@ GIT_DEPTH=${GIT_DEPTH:-0}
 # Use native SSL for servers in ``SSL_ENABLED_SERVICES``
 USE_SSL=$(trueorfalse False USE_SSL)
 
+# ebtables is inherently racey. If you run it by two or more processes
+# simultaneously it will collide, badly, in the kernel and produce
+# failures or corruption of ebtables. The only way around it is for
+# all tools running ebtables to only ever do so with the --concurrent
+# flag. This requires libvirt >= 1.2.11.
+#
+# If you don't have this then the following work around will replace
+# ebtables with a wrapper script so that it is safe to run without
+# that flag.
+EBTABLES_RACE_FIX=$(trueorfalse False EBTABLES_RACE_FIX)
 
 # Following entries need to be last items in file
 
diff --git a/tools/install_ebtables_workaround.sh b/tools/install_ebtables_workaround.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..45ced87f13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/install_ebtables_workaround.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/bin/bash -eu
+#
+# Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+#
+# This replaces the ebtables on your system with a wrapper script that
+# does implicit locking. This is needed if libvirt < 1.2.11 on your platform.
+
+EBTABLES=/sbin/ebtables
+EBTABLESREAL=/sbin/ebtables.real
+FILES=$TOP_DIR/files
+
+if [[ -f "$EBTABLES" ]]; then
+    if file $EBTABLES | grep ELF; then
+        sudo mv $EBTABLES $EBTABLESREAL
+        sudo install -m 0755 $FILES/ebtables.workaround $EBTABLES
+        echo "Replaced ebtables with locking workaround"
+    fi
+fi