diff --git a/nova/compute/multi_cell_list.py b/nova/compute/multi_cell_list.py
index 780881e11cb3..e75cea414326 100644
--- a/nova/compute/multi_cell_list.py
+++ b/nova/compute/multi_cell_list.py
@@ -17,8 +17,12 @@ import itertools
 
 import six
 
+from oslo_log import log as logging
+
 from nova import context
 
+LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 
 class RecordSortContext(object):
     def __init__(self, sort_keys, sort_dirs):
@@ -243,15 +247,23 @@ class CrossCellLister(object):
             return (RecordWrapper(self.sort_ctx, inst) for inst in
                     itertools.chain(local_marker_prefix, main_query_result))
 
-        # FIXME(danms): If we raise or timeout on a cell we need to handle
-        # that here gracefully. The below routine will provide sentinels
-        # to indicate that, which will crash the merge below, but we don't
-        # handle this anywhere yet anyway.
+        # NOTE(tssurya): When the below routine provides sentinels to indicate
+        # a timeout on a cell, we ignore that cell to avoid the crash when
+        # doing the merge below and continue merging the results from the 'up'
+        # cells.
+        # TODO(tssurya): Modify this to return the minimal available info from
+        # the down cells.
         if self.cells:
             results = context.scatter_gather_cells(ctx, self.cells, 60,
                                                    do_query)
         else:
             results = context.scatter_gather_all_cells(ctx, do_query)
+        for cell_uuid in list(results):
+            if results[cell_uuid] in (context.did_not_respond_sentinel,
+                                      context.raised_exception_sentinel):
+                LOG.warning("Cell %s is not responding and hence skipped "
+                            "from the results.", cell_uuid)
+                results.pop(cell_uuid)
 
         # If a limit was provided, it was passed to the per-cell query
         # routines.  That means we have NUM_CELLS * limit items across
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/compute/test_instance_list.py b/nova/tests/unit/compute/test_instance_list.py
index 4ab2b2976429..b6d668b2ae69 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/compute/test_instance_list.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/compute/test_instance_list.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 import mock
 
 from nova.compute import instance_list
+from nova.compute import multi_cell_list
 from nova import context as nova_context
 from nova import objects
 from nova import test
@@ -137,3 +138,27 @@ class TestInstanceList(test.NoDBTestCase):
                                         None, None,
                                         cell_mappings=None)
         mock_cm.assert_not_called()
+
+    @mock.patch('nova.context.scatter_gather_cells')
+    def test_get_instances_with_down_cells(self, mock_sg):
+        inst_cell0 = self.insts[uuids.cell0]
+        # storing the uuids of the instances from the up cell
+        uuid_initial = [inst['uuid'] for inst in inst_cell0]
+
+        instances = (multi_cell_list.RecordWrapper(self.context, inst)
+                     for inst in inst_cell0)
+
+        # creating one up cell and two down cells
+        ret_val = {}
+        ret_val[uuids.cell0] = instances
+        ret_val[uuids.cell1] = nova_context.raised_exception_sentinel
+        ret_val[uuids.cell2] = nova_context.did_not_respond_sentinel
+        mock_sg.return_value = ret_val
+
+        res = instance_list.get_instances_sorted(self.context, {}, None, None,
+                                                 [], None, None)
+
+        uuid_final = [inst['uuid'] for inst in res]
+
+        # return the results from the up cell, ignoring the down cell.
+        self.assertEqual(uuid_initial, uuid_final)
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/bug-1726301-list-across-down-cells-82726cac592e9728.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/bug-1726301-list-across-down-cells-82726cac592e9728.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..db608d863d42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/bug-1726301-list-across-down-cells-82726cac592e9728.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Listing server and migration records used to give a 500 to users
+    when a cell database was unreachable. Now only records from available
+    cells are included to avoid the 500 error. The down cells are basically
+    skipped when forming the results and this solution is planned to be
+    further enhanced through the `blueprint handling-down-cell`_.
+
+    .. _blueprint handling-down-cell: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/handling-down-cell