diff --git a/.zuul.yaml b/.zuul.yaml
index a7be67153b..803db3a3fa 100644
--- a/.zuul.yaml
+++ b/.zuul.yaml
@@ -700,6 +700,9 @@
     # TODO(kopecmartin) n-v until the following is resolved:
     # https://bugs.launchpad.net/neutron/+bug/1979047
     voting: false
+    vars:
+      devstack_localrc:
+        GLOBAL_VENV: false
 
 - job:
     name: devstack-platform-debian-bullseye
@@ -709,6 +712,9 @@
     timeout: 9000
     vars:
       configure_swap_size: 4096
+      devstack_localrc:
+        # TODO(frickler): drop this once wheel build is fixed
+        MYSQL_GATHER_PERFORMANCE: false
 
 - job:
     name: devstack-platform-rocky-blue-onyx
@@ -718,6 +724,8 @@
     timeout: 9000
     vars:
       configure_swap_size: 4096
+      devstack_localrc:
+        GLOBAL_VENV: false
 
 - job:
     name: devstack-platform-ubuntu-focal
diff --git a/files/apache-horizon.template b/files/apache-horizon.template
index efcfc0360b..da7a7d26c3 100644
--- a/files/apache-horizon.template
+++ b/files/apache-horizon.template
@@ -39,4 +39,5 @@
     CustomLog /var/log/%APACHE_NAME%/horizon_access.log combined
 </VirtualHost>
 
+%WSGIPYTHONHOME%
 WSGISocketPrefix /var/run/%APACHE_NAME%
diff --git a/functions-common b/functions-common
index 5e1aa34279..f752271976 100644
--- a/functions-common
+++ b/functions-common
@@ -1522,6 +1522,7 @@ function write_user_unit_file {
     mkdir -p $SYSTEMD_DIR
 
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Unit" "Description" "Devstack $service"
+    iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "Environment" "\"PATH=$PATH\""
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "User" "$user"
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "ExecStart" "$command"
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "KillMode" "process"
@@ -1549,6 +1550,7 @@ function write_uwsgi_user_unit_file {
     mkdir -p $SYSTEMD_DIR
 
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Unit" "Description" "Devstack $service"
+    iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "Environment" "\"PATH=$PATH\""
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "SyslogIdentifier" "$service"
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "User" "$user"
     iniset -sudo $unitfile "Service" "ExecStart" "$command"
@@ -1614,6 +1616,9 @@ function _run_under_systemd {
     fi
     local env_vars="$5"
     if [[ "$command" =~ "uwsgi" ]] ; then
+        if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+            cmd="$cmd --venv $DEVSTACK_VENV"
+        fi
         write_uwsgi_user_unit_file $systemd_service "$cmd" "$group" "$user" "$env_vars"
     else
         write_user_unit_file $systemd_service "$cmd" "$group" "$user" "$env_vars"
diff --git a/inc/python b/inc/python
index a24f4e910a..cc6e01fede 100644
--- a/inc/python
+++ b/inc/python
@@ -32,6 +32,23 @@ function join_extras {
 # Python Functions
 # ================
 
+# Setup the global devstack virtualenvs and the associated environment
+# updates.
+function setup_devstack_virtualenv {
+    # We run devstack out of a global virtualenv.
+    if [[ ! -d $DEVSTACK_VENV ]] ; then
+        # Using system site packages to enable nova to use libguestfs.
+        # This package is currently installed via the distro and not
+        # available on pypi.
+        python$PYTHON3_VERSION -m venv --system-site-packages $DEVSTACK_VENV
+        pip_install -U pip
+    fi
+    if [[ ":$PATH:" != *":$DEVSTACK_VENV/bin:"* ]] ; then
+        export PATH="$DEVSTACK_VENV/bin:$PATH"
+        export PYTHON="$DEVSTACK_VENV/bin/python3"
+    fi
+}
+
 # Get the path to the pip command.
 # get_pip_command
 function get_pip_command {
@@ -60,8 +77,11 @@ function get_python_exec_prefix {
     fi
     $xtrace
 
-    local PYTHON_PATH=/usr/local/bin
-    echo $PYTHON_PATH
+    if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+        echo "$DEVSTACK_VENV/bin"
+    else
+        echo "/usr/local/bin"
+    fi
 }
 
 # Wrapper for ``pip install`` that only installs versions of libraries
@@ -166,6 +186,14 @@ function pip_install {
     if [[ -n ${PIP_VIRTUAL_ENV:=} && -d ${PIP_VIRTUAL_ENV} ]]; then
         local cmd_pip=$PIP_VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/pip
         local sudo_pip="env"
+    elif [[ "${GLOBAL_VENV}" == "True" && -d ${DEVSTACK_VENV} ]] ; then
+        # We have to check that the DEVSTACK_VENV exists because early
+        # devstack boostrapping needs to operate in a system context
+        # too bootstrap pip. Once pip is bootstrapped we create the
+        # global venv and can start to use it.
+        local cmd_pip=$DEVSTACK_VENV/bin/pip
+        local sudo_pip="env"
+        echo "Using python $PYTHON3_VERSION to install $package_dir"
     else
         local cmd_pip="python$PYTHON3_VERSION -m pip"
         # See
@@ -439,7 +467,7 @@ function setup_package {
 
     pip_install $flags "$project_dir$extras"
     # ensure that further actions can do things like setup.py sdist
-    if [[ "$flags" == "-e" ]]; then
+    if [[ "$flags" == "-e" && "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "False" ]]; then
         safe_chown -R $STACK_USER $1/*.egg-info
     fi
 }
diff --git a/inc/rootwrap b/inc/rootwrap
index 2a6e4b648f..4c65440a4e 100644
--- a/inc/rootwrap
+++ b/inc/rootwrap
@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@ function configure_rootwrap {
     sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 $rootwrap_conf_src_dir/rootwrap.conf /etc/${project}/rootwrap.conf
     sudo sed -e "s:^filters_path=.*$:filters_path=/etc/${project}/rootwrap.d:" -i /etc/${project}/rootwrap.conf
 
+    # Rely on $PATH set by devstack to determine what is safe to execute
+    # by rootwrap rather than use explicit whitelist of paths in
+    # rootwrap.conf
+    sudo sed -e 's/^exec_dirs=.*/#&/' -i /etc/${project}/rootwrap.conf
+
     # Set up the rootwrap sudoers
     local tempfile
     tempfile=$(mktemp)
diff --git a/lib/glance b/lib/glance
index 430d94d3a4..e64f00027e 100644
--- a/lib/glance
+++ b/lib/glance
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ USE_CINDER_FOR_GLANCE=$(trueorfalse False USE_CINDER_FOR_GLANCE)
 # from CINDER_ENABLED_BACKENDS
 GLANCE_CINDER_DEFAULT_BACKEND=${GLANCE_CINDER_DEFAULT_BACKEND:-lvmdriver-1}
 GLANCE_STORE_ROOTWRAP_BASE_DIR=/usr/local/etc/glance
+if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+    GLANCE_STORE_ROOTWRAP_BASE_DIR=${DEVSTACK_VENV}/etc/glance
+fi
 # When Cinder is used as a glance store, you can optionally configure cinder to
 # optimize bootable volume creation by allowing volumes to be cloned directly
 # in the backend instead of transferring data via Glance.  To use this feature,
diff --git a/lib/horizon b/lib/horizon
index f76f9e557d..611329d619 100644
--- a/lib/horizon
+++ b/lib/horizon
@@ -115,6 +115,11 @@ function configure_horizon {
     local horizon_conf
     horizon_conf=$(apache_site_config_for horizon)
 
+    local wsgi_venv_config=""
+    if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+        wsgi_venv_config="WSGIPythonHome $DEVSTACK_VENV"
+    fi
+
     # Configure apache to run horizon
     # Set up the django horizon application to serve via apache/wsgi
     sudo sh -c "sed -e \"
@@ -124,6 +129,7 @@ function configure_horizon {
         s,%APACHE_NAME%,$APACHE_NAME,g;
         s,%DEST%,$DEST,g;
         s,%WEBROOT%,$HORIZON_APACHE_ROOT,g;
+        s,%WSGIPYTHONHOME%,$wsgi_venv_config,g;
     \" $FILES/apache-horizon.template >$horizon_conf"
 
     if is_ubuntu; then
diff --git a/lib/tls b/lib/tls
index a1e162d2e2..d35e9e2cee 100644
--- a/lib/tls
+++ b/lib/tls
@@ -364,8 +364,11 @@ function deploy_int_CA {
 function fix_system_ca_bundle_path {
     if is_service_enabled tls-proxy; then
         local capath
-        capath=$(python3 -c $'try:\n from requests import certs\n print (certs.where())\nexcept ImportError: pass')
-
+        if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+            capath=$($DEVSTACK_VENV/bin/python3 -c $'try:\n from requests import certs\n print (certs.where())\nexcept ImportError: pass')
+        else
+            capath=$(python3 -c $'try:\n from requests import certs\n print (certs.where())\nexcept ImportError: pass')
+        fi
         if [[ ! $capath == "" && ! $capath =~ ^/etc/.* && ! -L $capath ]]; then
             if is_fedora; then
                 sudo rm -f $capath
diff --git a/stack.sh b/stack.sh
index ad88eab9d5..c8f7c9d79e 100755
--- a/stack.sh
+++ b/stack.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
+
 # ``stack.sh`` is an opinionated OpenStack developer installation.  It
 # installs and configures various combinations of **Cinder**, **Glance**,
 # **Horizon**, **Keystone**, **Nova**, **Neutron**, and **Swift**
@@ -824,6 +825,17 @@ fi
 source $TOP_DIR/tools/fixup_stuff.sh
 fixup_all
 
+if [[ "$GLOBAL_VENV" == "True" ]] ; then
+    # TODO(frickler): find a better solution for this
+    sudo ln -sf /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/privsep-helper /usr/local/bin
+    sudo ln -sf /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/cinder-rtstool /usr/local/bin
+    sudo ln -sf /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/openstack /usr/local/bin
+    sudo ln -sf /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/tox /usr/local/bin
+    sudo ln -sf /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/nova-manage /usr/local/bin
+
+    setup_devstack_virtualenv
+fi
+
 # Install subunit for the subunit output stream
 pip_install -U os-testr
 
diff --git a/stackrc b/stackrc
index dcc0ce45e0..0d1880cec9 100644
--- a/stackrc
+++ b/stackrc
@@ -183,6 +183,14 @@ IDENTITY_API_VERSION=3
 # each services ${SERVICE}_ENFORCE_SCOPE variables
 ENFORCE_SCOPE=$(trueorfalse False ENFORCE_SCOPE)
 
+# Devstack supports the use of a global virtualenv. These variables enable
+# and disable this functionality as well as set the path to the virtualenv.
+# Note that the DATA_DIR is selected because grenade testing uses a shared
+# DATA_DIR but different DEST dirs and we don't want two sets of venvs,
+# instead we want one global set.
+GLOBAL_VENV=$(trueorfalse True GLOBAL_VENV)
+DEVSTACK_VENV=${DEVSTACK_VENV:-$DATA_DIR/venv}
+
 # Enable use of Python virtual environments.  Individual project use of
 # venvs are controlled by the PROJECT_VENV array; every project with
 # an entry in the array will be installed into the named venv.
diff --git a/tools/install_prereqs.sh b/tools/install_prereqs.sh
index f2d57c8451..bb470b2927 100755
--- a/tools/install_prereqs.sh
+++ b/tools/install_prereqs.sh
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ if [[ -n "$SYSLOG" && "$SYSLOG" != "False" ]]; then
     fi
 fi
 
+# TODO(clarkb) remove these once we are switched to global venv by default
+export PYTHON=$(which python${PYTHON3_VERSION} 2>/dev/null || which python3 2>/dev/null)
 
 # Mark end of run
 # ---------------
diff --git a/tools/memory_tracker.sh b/tools/memory_tracker.sh
index 6c36534f01..2f404c26fb 100755
--- a/tools/memory_tracker.sh
+++ b/tools/memory_tracker.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,12 @@
 
 set -o errexit
 
-PYTHON=${PYTHON:-python3}
+# TODO(frickler): make this use stackrc variables
+if [ -x /opt/stack/data/venv/bin/python ]; then
+    PYTHON=/opt/stack/data/venv/bin/python
+else
+    PYTHON=${PYTHON:-python3}
+fi
 
 # time to sleep between checks
 SLEEP_TIME=20