diff --git a/nova/policies/hosts.py b/nova/policies/hosts.py
index 53467dadefa0..191d0c088224 100644
--- a/nova/policies/hosts.py
+++ b/nova/policies/hosts.py
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ BASE_POLICY_NAME = 'os_compute_api:os-hosts'
 
 hosts_policies = [
     policy.DocumentedRuleDefault(
-        BASE_POLICY_NAME,
-        base.RULE_ADMIN_API,
-        """List, show and manage physical hosts.
+        name=BASE_POLICY_NAME,
+        check_str=base.RULE_ADMIN_API,
+        description="""List, show and manage physical hosts.
 
 These APIs are all deprecated in favor of os-hypervisors and os-services.""",
-        [
+        operations=[
             {
                 'method': 'GET',
                 'path': '/os-hosts'
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ These APIs are all deprecated in favor of os-hypervisors and os-services.""",
                 'method': 'GET',
                 'path': '/os-hosts/{host_name}/startup'
             }
-        ]),
+        ],
+        scope_types=['system']),
 ]
 
 
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/policies/test_hosts.py b/nova/tests/unit/policies/test_hosts.py
index 2973588b3255..f2e4c1c4eda6 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/policies/test_hosts.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/policies/test_hosts.py
@@ -108,3 +108,15 @@ class HostsScopeTypePolicyTest(HostsPolicyTest):
     def setUp(self):
         super(HostsScopeTypePolicyTest, self).setUp()
         self.flags(enforce_scope=True, group="oslo_policy")
+
+        # Check that system admin is able to perform operations on hosts.
+        self.admin_authorized_contexts = [
+            self.system_admin_context]
+        # Check that system non-admin is not able to perform operations
+        # on hosts.
+        self.admin_unauthorized_contexts = [
+            self.legacy_admin_context, self.project_admin_context,
+            self.system_member_context, self.system_reader_context,
+            self.system_foo_context, self.other_project_member_context,
+            self.project_foo_context, self.project_member_context,
+            self.project_reader_context, self.other_project_reader_context]