diff --git a/docker/services/nova-placement.yaml b/docker/services/nova-placement.yaml
index 1782154253..f77c183bc5 100644
--- a/docker/services/nova-placement.yaml
+++ b/docker/services/nova-placement.yaml
@@ -115,14 +115,30 @@ outputs:
             - path: /var/log/nova
               owner: nova:nova
               recurse: true
+      docker_config_scripts:
+        nova_wait_for_db_sync.py:
+          mode: "0700"
+          content: { get_file: ../../docker_config_scripts/nova_wait_for_db_sync.py }
       docker_config:
         step_2:
           get_attr: [NovaPlacementLogging, docker_config, step_2]
         # start this early so it is up before computes start reporting
         step_3:
-          nova_placement:
+          nova_wait_for_db_sync:
             start_order: 1
-            image: {get_param: DockerNovaPlacementImage}
+            image: &nova_placement_image {get_param: DockerNovaPlacementImage}
+            net: host
+            user: root
+            privileged: false
+            detach: false
+            volumes:
+              - /var/lib/nova:/var/lib/nova:shared
+              - /var/lib/docker-config-scripts/:/docker-config-scripts/
+              - /var/lib/config-data/puppet-generated/nova_placement/etc/nova:/etc/nova:ro
+            command: "/docker-config-scripts/nova_wait_for_db_sync.py"
+          nova_placement:
+            start_order: 2
+            image: *nova_placement_image
             net: host
             user: root
             restart: always
diff --git a/docker_config_scripts/nova_wait_for_db_sync.py b/docker_config_scripts/nova_wait_for_db_sync.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..10e7f7d99d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker_config_scripts/nova_wait_for_db_sync.py
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# Copyright 2018 Red Hat Inc.
+#
+# 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.
+
+# shell script to check if nova API DB migrations finished after X attempts.
+# Default max is 60 iterations with 10s (default) timeout in between.
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import logging
+import os
+import sys
+import time
+
+from migrate.versioning import api as versioning_api
+
+from nova import config
+from nova.db.sqlalchemy import migration
+
+
+logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout, level=logging.DEBUG)
+LOG = logging.getLogger('nova_wait_for_db_sync')
+
+iterations = 60
+timeout = 10
+nova_cfg = '/etc/nova/nova.conf'
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    if os.path.isfile(nova_cfg):
+        config.parse_args(sys.argv)
+    else:
+        LOG.error('Nova configuration file %s does not exist', nova_cfg)
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+    repo = migration._find_migrate_repo('api')
+    max_migration_number = versioning_api.version(repo.path)
+    LOG.info("Max migration number from files: %i", max_migration_number)
+
+    # wait for db miration to be finished, or fail
+    while iterations > 1:
+        iterations -= 1
+        try:
+            db_migration_number = migration.db_version('api')
+            if db_migration_number == max_migration_number:
+                LOG.info('Nova API DB sync finished. Migration number %i',
+                         db_migration_number)
+                sys.exit(0)
+                break
+            else:
+                LOG.info('Nova API DB sync not yet finished. Migration' +
+                         'number DB/files (%i/%i)',
+                         db_migration_number,
+                         max_migration_number)
+                time.sleep(timeout)
+        except Exception as e:
+            LOG.error('uuups something went wrong: %s ' + e.message)
+            break
+
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+# vim: set et ts=4 sw=4 :