diff --git a/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py b/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
index a7f500dc9033..3a43ff40790e 100644
--- a/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
+++ b/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
@@ -4192,7 +4192,11 @@ def _archive_deleted_rows_for_table(metadata, tablename, max_rows, before):
     # NOTE(jake): instance_actions_events doesn't have a instance_uuid column
     # but still needs to be archived as it is a FK constraint
     if ((max_rows is None or rows_archived < max_rows) and
-            ('instance_uuid' in columns or
+            # NOTE(melwitt): The pci_devices table uses the 'instance_uuid'
+            # column to track the allocated association of a PCI device and its
+            # records are not tied to the lifecycles of instance records.
+            (tablename != 'pci_devices' and
+             'instance_uuid' in columns or
              tablename == 'instance_actions_events')):
         instances = models.BASE.metadata.tables['instances']
         limit = max_rows - rows_archived if max_rows is not None else None
diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/db/test_archive.py b/nova/tests/functional/db/test_archive.py
index e2c53deac498..8a6211cdcff9 100644
--- a/nova/tests/functional/db/test_archive.py
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/db/test_archive.py
@@ -114,6 +114,19 @@ class TestDatabaseArchive(test_servers.ServersTestBase):
         # Verify we have some system_metadata since we'll check that later.
         self.assertTrue(len(instance.system_metadata),
                         'No system_metadata for instance: %s' % server_id)
+        # Create a pci_devices record to simulate an instance that had a PCI
+        # device allocated at the time it was deleted. There is a window of
+        # time between deletion of the instance record and freeing of the PCI
+        # device in nova-compute's _complete_deletion method during RT update.
+        db.pci_device_update(admin_context, 1, 'fake-address',
+                             {'compute_node_id': 1,
+                              'address': 'fake-address',
+                              'vendor_id': 'fake',
+                              'product_id': 'fake',
+                              'dev_type': 'fake',
+                              'label': 'fake',
+                              'status': 'allocated',
+                              'instance_uuid': instance.uuid})
         # Now try and archive the soft deleted records.
         results, deleted_instance_uuids, archived = \
             db.archive_deleted_rows(max_rows=100)
@@ -128,6 +141,8 @@ class TestDatabaseArchive(test_servers.ServersTestBase):
         self.assertIn('instance_actions', results)
         self.assertIn('instance_actions_events', results)
         self.assertEqual(sum(results.values()), archived)
+        # Verify that the pci_devices record has not been dropped
+        self.assertNotIn('pci_devices', results)
 
     def _get_table_counts(self):
         engine = sqlalchemy_api.get_engine()