diff --git a/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/glance b/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/glance
index 35f60923c594..134840335abf 100755
--- a/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/glance
+++ b/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/glance
@@ -93,6 +93,10 @@ def _download_tarball(request, staging_path):
         raise RetryException(error)
     except urllib2.URLError, error:
         raise RetryException(error)
+    except httplib.HTTPException, error:
+        # httplib.HTTPException and derivatives (BadStatusLine in particular)
+        # don't have a useful __repr__ or __str__
+        raise RetryException('%s: %s' % (error.__class__.__name__, error))
 
     tar_cmd = "tar -zx --directory=%(staging_path)s" % locals()
     tar_proc = _make_subprocess(tar_cmd, stderr=True, stdin=True)