diff --git a/nova/notifier/api.py b/nova/notifier/api.py
index 98969fd3..e18f3e28 100644
--- a/nova/notifier/api.py
+++ b/nova/notifier/api.py
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ def notify(publisher_id, event_type, priority, payload):
     if priority not in log_levels:
         raise BadPriorityException(
                  _('%s not in valid priorities' % priority))
+
+    # Ensure everything is JSON serializable.
+    payload = utils.to_primitive(payload, convert_instances=True)
+
     driver = utils.import_object(FLAGS.notification_driver)
     msg = dict(message_id=str(uuid.uuid4()),
                    publisher_id=publisher_id,
diff --git a/nova/tests/test_compute.py b/nova/tests/test_compute.py
index 860cdedd..879e4b9c 100644
--- a/nova/tests/test_compute.py
+++ b/nova/tests/test_compute.py
@@ -496,8 +496,8 @@ class ComputeTestCase(test.TestCase):
         db.instance_update(self.context, instance_id,
                 {'instance_type_id': inst_type['id']})
 
-        self.assertRaises(exception.ApiError, self.compute_api.resize,
-                context, instance_id, 1)
+        self.assertRaises(exception.CannotResizeToSmallerSize,
+                          self.compute_api.resize, context, instance_id, 1)
 
         self.compute.terminate_instance(context, instance_id)
 
@@ -508,8 +508,8 @@ class ComputeTestCase(test.TestCase):
 
         self.compute.run_instance(self.context, instance_id)
 
-        self.assertRaises(exception.ApiError, self.compute_api.resize,
-                context, instance_id, 1)
+        self.assertRaises(exception.CannotResizeToSameSize,
+                          self.compute_api.resize, context, instance_id, 1)
 
         self.compute.terminate_instance(context, instance_id)