diff --git a/nodepool/elements/openstack-repos/element-deps b/nodepool/elements/openstack-repos/element-deps
index 827b787095..56db9da599 100644
--- a/nodepool/elements/openstack-repos/element-deps
+++ b/nodepool/elements/openstack-repos/element-deps
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
 cache-url
-prepare-node
 source-repositories
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/README.rst b/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/README.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index ba52fcfad5..0000000000
--- a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/README.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Prepare the node
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/element-deps b/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/element-deps
deleted file mode 100644
index 8075e710a4..0000000000
--- a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/element-deps
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-nodepool-base
diff --git a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/install.d/20-prepare-node b/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/install.d/20-prepare-node
deleted file mode 100755
index c150d16985..0000000000
--- a/nodepool/elements/prepare-node/install.d/20-prepare-node
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# Copyright (C) 2011-2013 OpenStack Foundation
-#
-# 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.
-
-# dib-lint: disable=setu setpipefail
-if [ ${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0} -gt 0 ]; then
-    set -x
-fi
-set -e
-
-mkdir -p ~jenkins/cache/files
-mkdir -p ~jenkins/cache/pip