diff --git a/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py b/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
index 3e447f2..fe3f307 100644
--- a/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
+++ b/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
@@ -133,20 +133,21 @@ def _getvm(driver_info):
     password = driver_info['ovirt_password']
     insecure = driver_info['ovirt_insecure']
     ca_file = driver_info['ovirt_ca_file']
-    name = str.encode(
-        driver_info['ovirt_vm_name'], encoding='ascii', errors='ignore')
+    name = driver_info['ovirt_vm_name']
     url = "https://%s/ovirt-engine/api" % address
+
     try:
         # pycurl.Curl.setopt doesn't support unicode strings,
-        # attempt to turn `url` into an all-ASCII string;
+        # attempt to turn variables into an all-ASCII string;
         # in Python 3.x setopt accepts bytes as it should.
-        url = str.encode(url, encoding='ascii', errors='strict')
+        str.encode(url, encoding='ascii', errors='strict')
 
     except UnicodeEncodeError:
-        LOG.warning("oVirt URL '%(url)s' contains non-ascii characters, "
-                    "that might cause pycurl to explode "
-                    "momentarily", {'url': url})
-
+        LOG.exception("oVirt SDK does not accept non-ascii "
+                      "characters. A non-ascii character has "
+                      "been provided for: {}".format(url))
+        raise staging_exception.OVirtError("Unicode values "
+                                           "are not valid")
     try:
         connection = sdk.Connection(url=url, username=username,
                                     password=password, insecure=insecure,
diff --git a/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py b/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
index bc6cbd2..fcd7849 100644
--- a/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
+++ b/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ from ironic.common import states
 from ironic.conductor import task_manager
 from ironic.tests.unit.db import base as db_base
 from ironic.tests.unit.objects import utils as obj_utils
+import testtools
 
+from ironic_staging_drivers.common import exception as staging_exception
 from ironic_staging_drivers.ovirt import ovirt as ovirt_power
 
 
@@ -64,11 +66,11 @@ class OVirtDriverTestCase(db_base.DbTestCase):
         with ovirt_power._getvm(driver_info):
             ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.assert_called_with(
                 ca_file=None, insecure='False', password='changeme',
-                url=b'https://127.0.0.1/ovirt-engine/api',
+                url='https://127.0.0.1/ovirt-engine/api',
                 username='jhendrix@internal'
             )
         url = ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.mock_calls[0][-1]['url']
-        self.assertIsInstance(url, bytes)
+        self.assertIsInstance(url, str)
 
         ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.return_value.close.assert_called()
 
@@ -77,15 +79,10 @@ class OVirtDriverTestCase(db_base.DbTestCase):
         self.node['driver_info']['ovirt_address'] = u'host\u20141'
         driver_info = ovirt_power._parse_driver_info(self.node)
 
-        with ovirt_power._getvm(driver_info):
-            ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.assert_called_with(
-                ca_file=None, insecure='False', password='changeme',
-                url=u'https://host\u20141/ovirt-engine/api',
-                username='jhendrix@internal'
-            )
-        url = ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.mock_calls[0][-1]['url']
-        self.assertIsInstance(url, str)
-        ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.return_value.close.assert_called()
+        with testtools.ExpectedException(staging_exception.OVirtError):
+            with ovirt_power._getvm(driver_info):
+                pass
+        ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.call_count = 0
 
     def test_get_properties(self):
         expected = list(ovirt_power.PROPERTIES.keys())