diff --git a/babel.cfg b/babel.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..15cd6cb76b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/babel.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[python: **.py]
+
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 6c00cffd65..cbaaae91c6 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -75,3 +75,17 @@ oslo.config.opts =
     octavia = octavia.opts:list_opts
 tempest.test_plugins =
     octavia = octavia.tests.tempest.plugin:OctaviaTempestPlugin
+
+[compile_catalog]
+directory = octavia/locale
+domain = octavia
+
+[update_catalog]
+domain = octavia
+output_dir = octavia/locale
+input_file = octavia/locale/octavia.pot
+
+[extract_messages]
+keywords = _ gettext ngettext l_ lazy_gettext
+mapping_file = babel.cfg
+output_file = octavia/locale/octavia.pot
diff --git a/tools/misc-sanity-checks.sh b/tools/misc-sanity-checks.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..0b7dcac5a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/misc-sanity-checks.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+#! /bin/sh
+
+# Copyright (C) 2014 VA Linux Systems Japan K.K.
+# Copyright (C) 2014 YAMAMOTO Takashi <yamamoto at valinux co jp>
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+TMPDIR=`mktemp -d /tmp/${0##*/}.XXXXXX` || exit 1
+export TMPDIR
+trap "rm -rf $TMPDIR" EXIT
+
+FAILURES=$TMPDIR/failures
+
+
+check_pot_files_errors () {
+    find octavia -type f -regex '.*\.pot?' \
+                 -print0|xargs -0 -n 1 --no-run-if-empty msgfmt \
+                 --check-format -o /dev/null
+    if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then
+        echo "PO files syntax is not correct!" >>$FAILURES
+    fi
+}
+
+check_identical_policy_files () {
+    # For unit tests, we maintain their own policy.json file to make test suite
+    # independent of whether it's executed from the octavia source tree or from
+    # site-packages installation path. We don't want two copies of the same
+    # file to diverge, so checking that they are identical
+    diff etc/policy.json octavia/tests/etc/policy.json 2>&1 > /dev/null
+    if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then
+        echo "policy.json files must be identical!" >>$FAILURES
+    fi
+}
+
+check_no_duplicate_api_test_idempotent_ids() {
+    # For API tests, an idempotent ID is assigned to each single API test,
+    # those IDs should be unique
+    output=$(check-uuid --package octavia.tests.tempest)
+    if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then
+        echo "There are duplicate idempotent ids in the API tests" >>$FAILURES
+        echo "please, assign unique uuids to each API test:" >>$FAILURES
+        echo "$output" >>$FAILURES
+    fi
+}
+
+# Add your checks here...
+check_pot_files_errors
+# TODO(johnsom) Uncomment when we have policies to test
+# check_identical_policy_files
+# TODO(johnsom) Uncomment when we have idempotent ids
+# check_no_duplicate_api_test_idempotent_ids
+
+# Fail, if there are emitted failures
+if [ -f $FAILURES ]; then
+    cat $FAILURES
+    exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 281adaa025..389b8688cc 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -59,9 +59,13 @@ commands = flake8
            CONSTITUTION.rst HACKING.rst README.rst
 	   # Run security linter
            bandit -r octavia -ll -ii -x octavia/tests
-       # Make sure specs follow our template
+           # Make sure specs follow our template
            find . -type f -name "*.pyc" -delete
            python -m unittest specs-tests.test_titles
+           sh ./tools/misc-sanity-checks.sh
+whitelist_externals =
+  sh
+  find
 
 [testenv:docs]
 commands =