diff --git a/ansible/roles/nova-cell/templates/nova-libvirt.json.j2 b/ansible/roles/nova-cell/templates/nova-libvirt.json.j2
index c2c5a50c51..f4160c6af4 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/nova-cell/templates/nova-libvirt.json.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/nova-cell/templates/nova-libvirt.json.j2
@@ -47,14 +47,14 @@
             "source": "{{ container_config_directory }}/secrets",
             "dest": "/etc/libvirt/secrets",
             "owner": "root",
-            "perm": "0600"
+            "perm": "0600",
+            "merge": true
         }{% endif %}{% if nova_backend == "rbd" %},
         {
             "source": "{{ container_config_directory }}/ceph.conf",
             "dest": "/etc/ceph/ceph.conf",
             "owner": "nova",
-            "perm": "0600",
-            "merge": true
+            "perm": "0600"
         }{% endif %}
     ]
 }