diff --git a/nova/objects/request_spec.py b/nova/objects/request_spec.py
index 6e0d93508947..3030135c742f 100644
--- a/nova/objects/request_spec.py
+++ b/nova/objects/request_spec.py
@@ -441,6 +441,18 @@ class RequestSpec(base.NovaObject):
             else:
                 setattr(spec, key, getattr(spec_obj, key))
         spec._context = context
+
+        if 'instance_group' in spec and spec.instance_group:
+            # NOTE(danms): We don't store the full instance group in
+            # the reqspec since it would be stale almost immediately.
+            # Instead, load it by uuid here so it's up-to-date.
+            try:
+                spec.instance_group = objects.InstanceGroup.get_by_uuid(
+                    context, spec.instance_group.uuid)
+            except exception.InstanceGroupNotFound:
+                # NOTE(danms): Instance group may have been deleted
+                spec.instance_group = None
+
         spec.obj_reset_changes()
         return spec
 
@@ -480,7 +492,14 @@ class RequestSpec(base.NovaObject):
         # NOTE(alaski): The db schema is the full serialized object in a
         # 'spec' column.  If anything has changed we rewrite the full thing.
         if updates:
-            db_updates = {'spec': jsonutils.dumps(self.obj_to_primitive())}
+            # NOTE(danms): Don't persist the could-be-large and could-be-stale
+            # properties of InstanceGroup
+            spec = self.obj_clone()
+            if 'instance_group' in spec and spec.instance_group:
+                spec.instance_group.members = None
+                spec.instance_group.hosts = None
+
+            db_updates = {'spec': jsonutils.dumps(spec.obj_to_primitive())}
             if 'instance_uuid' in updates:
                 db_updates['instance_uuid'] = updates['instance_uuid']
         return db_updates
diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/db/test_request_spec.py b/nova/tests/functional/db/test_request_spec.py
index d84765bbb5f7..d4d8696a02cd 100644
--- a/nova/tests/functional/db/test_request_spec.py
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/db/test_request_spec.py
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ class RequestSpecTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         super(RequestSpecTestCase, self).setUp()
         self.useFixture(fixtures.Database(database='api'))
+        # NOTE(danms): Only needed for the fallback legacy main db loading
+        # code in InstanceGroup.
+        self.useFixture(fixtures.Database(database='main'))
         self.context = context.RequestContext('fake-user', 'fake-project')
         self.spec_obj = request_spec.RequestSpec()
         self.instance_uuid = None
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/fake_request_spec.py b/nova/tests/unit/fake_request_spec.py
index 04d59b425f95..3957d8f29074 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/fake_request_spec.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/fake_request_spec.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ from oslo_utils import uuidutils
 from nova import context
 from nova import objects
 from nova.tests.unit import fake_flavor
+from nova.tests import uuidsentinel as uuids
 
 
 INSTANCE_NUMA_TOPOLOGY = objects.InstanceNUMATopology(
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@ def fake_spec_obj(remove_id=False):
     req_obj.flavor = fake_flavor.fake_flavor_obj(ctxt)
     req_obj.retry = objects.SchedulerRetries()
     req_obj.limits = objects.SchedulerLimits()
-    req_obj.instance_group = objects.InstanceGroup()
+    req_obj.instance_group = objects.InstanceGroup(uuid=uuids.instgroup)
     req_obj.project_id = 'fake'
     req_obj.num_instances = 1
     req_obj.availability_zone = None
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/objects/test_request_spec.py b/nova/tests/unit/objects/test_request_spec.py
index 484a7d985277..00faeff3ce3c 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/objects/test_request_spec.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/objects/test_request_spec.py
@@ -494,9 +494,11 @@ class _TestRequestSpecObject(object):
 
     @mock.patch.object(request_spec.RequestSpec,
             '_get_by_instance_uuid_from_db')
-    def test_get_by_instance_uuid(self, get_by_uuid):
+    @mock.patch('nova.objects.InstanceGroup.get_by_uuid')
+    def test_get_by_instance_uuid(self, mock_get_ig, get_by_uuid):
         fake_spec = fake_request_spec.fake_db_spec()
         get_by_uuid.return_value = fake_spec
+        mock_get_ig.return_value = objects.InstanceGroup(name='fresh')
 
         req_obj = request_spec.RequestSpec.get_by_instance_uuid(self.context,
                 fake_spec['instance_uuid'])
@@ -517,6 +519,7 @@ class _TestRequestSpecObject(object):
         self.assertIsInstance(req_obj.retry, objects.SchedulerRetries)
         self.assertIsInstance(req_obj.limits, objects.SchedulerLimits)
         self.assertIsInstance(req_obj.instance_group, objects.InstanceGroup)
+        self.assertEqual('fresh', req_obj.instance_group.name)
 
     def _check_update_primitive(self, req_obj, changes):
         self.assertEqual(req_obj.instance_uuid, changes['instance_uuid'])
@@ -532,11 +535,14 @@ class _TestRequestSpecObject(object):
 
         # object fields
         for field in ['image', 'numa_topology', 'pci_requests', 'flavor',
-                'retry', 'limits', 'instance_group']:
+                'retry', 'limits']:
             self.assertEqual(
                     getattr(req_obj, field).obj_to_primitive(),
                     getattr(serialized_obj, field).obj_to_primitive())
 
+        self.assertIsNone(serialized_obj.instance_group.members)
+        self.assertIsNone(serialized_obj.instance_group.hosts)
+
     def test_create(self):
         req_obj = fake_request_spec.fake_spec_obj(remove_id=True)