diff --git a/hooks/nova-compute-common b/hooks/nova-compute-common
index 9ae78dc..83752ac 100755
--- a/hooks/nova-compute-common
+++ b/hooks/nova-compute-common
@@ -29,6 +29,17 @@ function set_or_update {
   fi
 }
 
+function nova_ctl_status {
+  SERVICE=$1
+  # workaround upstarts lack of scriptable return codes
+  STATUS=$(service nova-compute status | cut -d/ -f1 | awk '{ print $2 }')
+  case $STATUS in
+    "start") return 0 ;;
+    "stop") return 1 ;;
+    *) echo "ERROR: Unexpected status of service $I: $STATUS" && exit 1 ;;
+  esac
+}
+
 function nova_ctl {
   if [[ $1 == "all" ]] ; then
     CTL=$SERVICES
@@ -41,10 +52,14 @@ function nova_ctl {
     exit 1
   fi
   for i in $CTL ; do
-    service $i $ACTION
-    if [[ $? != 0 ]] ; then
-      ensemble-log "ERROR nova_ctl: Service $i failed to $ACTION"
-    fi
+    case $ACTION in
+      "start")
+        nova_ctl_status $i || service $i start ;;
+      "stop")
+        nova_ctl_status $i && service $i stop || return 0 ;;
+      "restart")
+        nova_ctl_status $i && service $i restart || service $i start ;;
+    esac
   done
 }
 
diff --git a/hooks/start b/hooks/start
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..6f9ff4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hooks/start
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+nova-compute-relations
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hooks/stop b/hooks/stop
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..6f9ff4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hooks/stop
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+nova-compute-relations
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/metadata.yaml b/metadata.yaml
index 58ce8c8..0868e30 100644
--- a/metadata.yaml
+++ b/metadata.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ensemble: formula
 name: nova-compute
-revision: 16
+revision: 17
 summary: "OpenStack compute"
 description: |
  OpenStack Compute, codenamed Nova, is a cloud computing fabric controller. In