diff --git a/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py b/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
index c27accc..b500cd3 100644
--- a/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
+++ b/ironic_staging_drivers/ovirt/ovirt.py
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ via oVirt sdk API.
 
 For use in dev and test environments.
 """
-
 from ironic.common import boot_devices
 from ironic.common import exception
 from ironic.common.i18n import _
@@ -29,6 +28,7 @@ from ironic.drivers import base
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 from oslo_utils import importutils
+import six
 
 from ironic_staging_drivers.common import exception as staging_exception
 
@@ -130,17 +130,18 @@ def _getvm(driver_info):
     password = driver_info['ovirt_password']
     insecure = driver_info['ovirt_insecure']
     ca_file = driver_info['ovirt_ca_file']
-    name = driver_info['ovirt_vm_name'].encode('ascii', 'ignore')
+    name = six.ensure_str(
+        driver_info['ovirt_vm_name'], encoding='ascii', errors='ignore')
     url = "https://%s/ovirt-engine/api" % address
     try:
-        # pycurl.Curl.setopt doesn't support unicode stings
-        # convert them to a acsii str
-        url = url.encode('ascii', 'strict')
+        # pycurl.Curl.setopt doesn't support unicode strings,
+        # attempt to turn `url` into an all-ASCII string
+        url = six.ensure_str(url, encoding='ascii', errors='strict')
+
     except UnicodeEncodeError:
-        # url contains unicode characters that can't be converted, attempt to
-        # use it, if we have a version of pycurl that rejects it then a
-        # sdk.Error will be thrown below
-        pass
+        LOG.warning("oVirt URL '%(url)s' contains non-ascii characters, "
+                    "that might cause pycurl to explode "
+                    "momentarily", {'url': url})
 
     try:
         connection = sdk.Connection(url=url, username=username,
diff --git a/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py b/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
index f6dd247..c0fa2f7 100644
--- a/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
+++ b/ironic_staging_drivers/tests/unit/ovirt/test_ovirt.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ 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 mock
+import six
 
 from ironic_staging_drivers.ovirt import ovirt as ovirt_power
 
@@ -64,11 +65,11 @@ class OVirtDriverTestCase(db_base.DbTestCase):
         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.assertEqual(type(b''), type(url))
+        self.assertIsInstance(url, six.string_types)
 
     @mock.patch.object(ovirt_power, "sdk", create=True)
     def test_getvm_unicode(self, sdk):
@@ -82,7 +83,7 @@ class OVirtDriverTestCase(db_base.DbTestCase):
             username='jhendrix@internal'
         )
         url = ovirt_power.sdk.Connection.mock_calls[0][-1]['url']
-        self.assertEqual(type(u''), type(url))
+        self.assertIsInstance(url, six.text_type)
 
     def test_get_properties(self):
         expected = list(ovirt_power.PROPERTIES.keys())
diff --git a/lower-constraints.txt b/lower-constraints.txt
index eb1b333..4b08ec8 100644
--- a/lower-constraints.txt
+++ b/lower-constraints.txt
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ requestsexceptions==1.4.0
 restructuredtext-lint==1.1.3
 rfc3986==1.1.0
 Routes==2.4.1
-six==1.10.0
+six==1.12.0
 snowballstemmer==1.2.1
 Sphinx==1.6.2
 sphinxcontrib-websupport==1.0.1
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fixed-ovirt-py3-a04265738d9a4562.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/fixed-ovirt-py3-a04265738d9a4562.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be4cf1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/fixed-ovirt-py3-a04265738d9a4562.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Fixed parameters types used to call ``ovirtsdk4`` package services in
+    ``ovirt`` driver to make it operational under Python 3 as well.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index a9fdd53..60e146d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,6 @@ oslo.config>=5.2.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.i18n>=3.15.3 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.log>=3.36.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslo.utils>=3.33.0 # Apache-2.0
-six>=1.10.0 # MIT
+six>=1.12.0 # MIT
 jsonschema>=2.6.0 # MIT
 oslo.service!=1.28.1,>=1.24.0 # Apache-2.0