diff --git a/nova/flags.py b/nova/flags.py
index 51979364..32cb6efa 100644
--- a/nova/flags.py
+++ b/nova/flags.py
@@ -369,6 +369,9 @@ DEFINE_string('host', socket.gethostname(),
 DEFINE_string('node_availability_zone', 'nova',
               'availability zone of this node')
 
+DEFINE_string('notification_driver',
+              'nova.notifier.no_op_notifier',
+              'Default driver for sending notifications')
 DEFINE_list('memcached_servers', None,
             'Memcached servers or None for in process cache.')
 
diff --git a/nova/notifier/__init__.py b/nova/notifier/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..482d54e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/notifier/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.
diff --git a/nova/notifier/api.py b/nova/notifier/api.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a2231055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/notifier/api.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.import datetime
+
+import datetime
+import uuid
+
+from nova import flags
+from nova import utils
+
+FLAGS = flags.FLAGS
+
+flags.DEFINE_string('default_notification_level', 'INFO',
+                    'Default notification level for outgoing notifications')
+
+WARN = 'WARN'
+INFO = 'INFO'
+ERROR = 'ERROR'
+CRITICAL = 'CRITICAL'
+DEBUG = 'DEBUG'
+
+log_levels = (DEBUG, WARN, INFO, ERROR, CRITICAL)
+
+
+class BadPriorityException(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
+def notify(publisher_id, event_type, priority, payload):
+    """
+    Sends a notification using the specified driver
+
+    Notify parameters:
+
+    publisher_id - the source worker_type.host of the message
+    event_type - the literal type of event (ex. Instance Creation)
+    priority - patterned after the enumeration of Python logging levels in
+               the set (DEBUG, WARN, INFO, ERROR, CRITICAL)
+    payload - A python dictionary of attributes
+
+    Outgoing message format includes the above parameters, and appends the
+    following:
+
+    message_id - a UUID representing the id for this notification
+    timestamp - the GMT timestamp the notification was sent at
+
+    The composite message will be constructed as a dictionary of the above
+    attributes, which will then be sent via the transport mechanism defined
+    by the driver.
+
+    Message example:
+
+    {'message_id': str(uuid.uuid4()),
+     'publisher_id': 'compute.host1',
+     'timestamp': datetime.datetime.utcnow(),
+     'priority': 'WARN',
+     'event_type': 'compute.create_instance',
+     'payload': {'instance_id': 12, ... }}
+
+    """
+    if priority not in log_levels:
+        raise BadPriorityException(
+                 _('%s not in valid priorities' % priority))
+    driver = utils.import_object(FLAGS.notification_driver)
+    msg = dict(message_id=str(uuid.uuid4()),
+                   publisher_id=publisher_id,
+                   event_type=event_type,
+                   priority=priority,
+                   payload=payload,
+                   timestamp=str(datetime.datetime.utcnow()))
+    driver.notify(msg)
diff --git a/nova/notifier/log_notifier.py b/nova/notifier/log_notifier.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a3df3172
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/notifier/log_notifier.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.
+
+import json
+
+from nova import flags
+from nova import log as logging
+
+FLAGS = flags.FLAGS
+
+
+def notify(message):
+    """Notifies the recipient of the desired event given the model.
+    Log notifications using nova's default logging system"""
+
+    priority = message.get('priority',
+                           FLAGS.default_notification_level)
+    priority = priority.lower()
+    logger = logging.getLogger(
+            'nova.notification.%s' % message['event_type'])
+    getattr(logger, priority)(json.dumps(message))
diff --git a/nova/notifier/no_op_notifier.py b/nova/notifier/no_op_notifier.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..02971050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/notifier/no_op_notifier.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.
+
+
+def notify(message):
+    """Notifies the recipient of the desired event given the model"""
+    pass
diff --git a/nova/notifier/rabbit_notifier.py b/nova/notifier/rabbit_notifier.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..acab7965
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/notifier/rabbit_notifier.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.
+
+
+import nova.context
+
+from nova import flags
+from nova import rpc
+
+FLAGS = flags.FLAGS
+
+flags.DEFINE_string('notification_topic', 'notifications',
+                    'RabbitMQ topic used for Nova notifications')
+
+
+def notify(message):
+    """Sends a notification to the RabbitMQ"""
+    context = nova.context.get_admin_context()
+    priority = message.get('priority',
+                           FLAGS.default_notification_level)
+    priority = priority.lower()
+    topic = '%s.%s' % (FLAGS.notification_topic, priority)
+    rpc.cast(context, topic, message)
diff --git a/nova/tests/test_notifier.py b/nova/tests/test_notifier.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6b0fcc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/tests/test_notifier.py
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    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.
+
+import nova
+
+from nova import context
+from nova import flags
+from nova import rpc
+import nova.notifier.api
+from nova.notifier.api import notify
+from nova.notifier import no_op_notifier
+from nova.notifier import rabbit_notifier
+from nova import test
+
+import stubout
+
+
+class NotifierTestCase(test.TestCase):
+    """Test case for notifications"""
+    def setUp(self):
+        super(NotifierTestCase, self).setUp()
+        self.stubs = stubout.StubOutForTesting()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.stubs.UnsetAll()
+        super(NotifierTestCase, self).tearDown()
+
+    def test_send_notification(self):
+        self.notify_called = False
+
+        def mock_notify(cls, *args):
+            self.notify_called = True
+
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.notifier.no_op_notifier, 'notify',
+                mock_notify)
+
+        class Mock(object):
+            pass
+        notify('publisher_id', 'event_type',
+                nova.notifier.api.WARN, dict(a=3))
+        self.assertEqual(self.notify_called, True)
+
+    def test_verify_message_format(self):
+        """A test to ensure changing the message format is prohibitively
+        annoying"""
+
+        def message_assert(message):
+            fields = [('publisher_id', 'publisher_id'),
+                      ('event_type', 'event_type'),
+                      ('priority', 'WARN'),
+                      ('payload', dict(a=3))]
+            for k, v in fields:
+                self.assertEqual(message[k], v)
+            self.assertTrue(len(message['message_id']) > 0)
+            self.assertTrue(len(message['timestamp']) > 0)
+
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.notifier.no_op_notifier, 'notify',
+                message_assert)
+        notify('publisher_id', 'event_type',
+                nova.notifier.api.WARN, dict(a=3))
+
+    def test_send_rabbit_notification(self):
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.flags.FLAGS, 'notification_driver',
+                'nova.notifier.rabbit_notifier')
+        self.mock_cast = False
+
+        def mock_cast(cls, *args):
+            self.mock_cast = True
+
+        class Mock(object):
+            pass
+
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.rpc, 'cast', mock_cast)
+        notify('publisher_id', 'event_type',
+                nova.notifier.api.WARN, dict(a=3))
+
+        self.assertEqual(self.mock_cast, True)
+
+    def test_invalid_priority(self):
+        def mock_cast(cls, *args):
+            pass
+
+        class Mock(object):
+            pass
+
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.rpc, 'cast', mock_cast)
+        self.assertRaises(nova.notifier.api.BadPriorityException,
+                notify, 'publisher_id',
+                'event_type', 'not a priority', dict(a=3))
+
+    def test_rabbit_priority_queue(self):
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.flags.FLAGS, 'notification_driver',
+                'nova.notifier.rabbit_notifier')
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.flags.FLAGS, 'notification_topic',
+                'testnotify')
+
+        self.test_topic = None
+
+        def mock_cast(context, topic, msg):
+            self.test_topic = topic
+
+        self.stubs.Set(nova.rpc, 'cast', mock_cast)
+        notify('publisher_id',
+                'event_type', 'DEBUG', dict(a=3))
+        self.assertEqual(self.test_topic, 'testnotify.debug')