diff --git a/manifests/profile/base/nova/migration/client.pp b/manifests/profile/base/nova/migration/client.pp
index cc9b93230..66a7ec0bd 100644
--- a/manifests/profile/base/nova/migration/client.pp
+++ b/manifests/profile/base/nova/migration/client.pp
@@ -70,7 +70,10 @@ class tripleo::profile::base::nova::migration::client (
         configure_libvirt  => $libvirt_enabled,
         configure_nova     => $nova_compute_enabled,
         client_user        => 'nova_migration',
-        client_extraparams => {'keyfile' => '/etc/nova/migration/identity'},
+        client_extraparams => {
+          'keyfile' => '/etc/nova/migration/identity',
+          'proxy'   => 'netcat',
+        },
         client_port        => $ssh_port
       }
     }
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/nova_compute_live_migration_force_nc-f903a09955164ad9.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/nova_compute_live_migration_force_nc-f903a09955164ad9.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..553f21728
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/nova_compute_live_migration_force_nc-f903a09955164ad9.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    libvirt 6.8.0 introduces virt-ssh-helper which prepends the libvirt
+    ssh command with a "which virt-ssh-helper". libvirt used to first
+    check for `nc` (netcat). But these two libvirt commits[1][2] have now
+    changed it to first look for `virt-ssh-helper`, if it not available,
+    then fall back to `nc`. This trips up the 'nova-migration-wrapper' as
+    it does not support virt-ssh-helper atm.
+    Until this is implemented, this change force to use "netcat" (`nc`) by
+    appending to the migration URI: "&proxy=netcat"
+    [1] https://libvirt.org/git/?p=libvirt.git;a=commit;h=f8ec7c842d (rpc:
+    use new virt-ssh-helper binary for remote tunnelling, 2020-07-08)
+    [2] https://libvirt.org/git/?p=libvirt.git;a=commit;h=7d959c302d (rpc:
+    Fix virt-ssh-helper detection, 2020-10-27)