diff --git a/nova/scheduler/manager.py b/nova/scheduler/manager.py
index b38d12c18a20..98116b92f92a 100644
--- a/nova/scheduler/manager.py
+++ b/nova/scheduler/manager.py
@@ -111,7 +111,10 @@ class SchedulerManager(manager.Manager):
         alloc_reqs, p_sums = None, None
         if self.driver.USES_ALLOCATION_CANDIDATES:
             res = self.placement_client.get_allocation_candidates(resources)
-            alloc_reqs, p_sums = res
+            # We have to handle the case that we failed to connect to the
+            # Placement service and the safe_connect decorator on
+            # get_allocation_candidates returns None.
+            alloc_reqs, p_sums = res if res is not None else (None, None)
             if not alloc_reqs:
                 LOG.debug("Got no allocation candidates from the Placement "
                           "API. This may be a temporary occurrence as compute "
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/scheduler/test_scheduler.py b/nova/tests/unit/scheduler/test_scheduler.py
index 340cb6ba8df4..07dfe1772d08 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/scheduler/test_scheduler.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/scheduler/test_scheduler.py
@@ -127,6 +127,28 @@ class SchedulerManagerTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase):
                     [fake_spec.instance_uuid], None)
             mock_get_ac.assert_called_once_with(mock_rfrs.return_value)
 
+    @mock.patch('nova.scheduler.utils.resources_from_request_spec')
+    @mock.patch('nova.scheduler.client.report.SchedulerReportClient.'
+                'get_allocation_candidates', return_value=None)
+    def test_select_destination_placement_connect_fails(
+            self, mock_get_ac, mock_rfrs):
+        """Tests that we will pass None for the provider_summaries parameter to
+        the scheduler driver select_destinations() method when the scheduler
+        report client's get_allocation_candidates() returns None, which it
+        would if the connection to Placement failed and the safe_connect
+        decorator returns None.
+        """
+        fake_spec = objects.RequestSpec()
+        fake_spec.instance_uuid = uuids.instance
+        with mock.patch.object(self.manager.driver,
+                               'select_destinations') as select_destinations:
+            self.manager.select_destinations(
+                self.context, spec_obj=fake_spec,
+                instance_uuids=[fake_spec.instance_uuid])
+            select_destinations.assert_called_once_with(
+                self.context, fake_spec, [fake_spec.instance_uuid], None)
+            mock_get_ac.assert_called_once_with(mock_rfrs.return_value)
+
     @mock.patch('nova.scheduler.utils.resources_from_request_spec')
     @mock.patch('nova.scheduler.client.report.SchedulerReportClient.'
                 'get_allocation_candidates')