diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 85a60ba2..896f5573 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -393,6 +393,9 @@ nova_ceph_client_uuid: 517a4663-3927-44bc-9ea7-4a90e1cd4c66
 # ceph be deployed on the nova compute hosts to enable volume backed instances.
 nova_cinder_rbd_inuse: False
 
+# Used to determine if we need a Ceph client
+nova_rbd_inuse: "(nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool is defined) or (nova_cinder_rbd_inuse | bool)"
+
 ## General Nova configuration
 # If ``nova_osapi_compute_workers`` is unset the system will use half the number of available VCPUS to
 # compute the number of api workers to use.
diff --git a/tasks/main.yml b/tasks/main.yml
index e4322ab6..501075c3 100644
--- a/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tasks/main.yml
@@ -232,9 +232,8 @@
     openstack_service_venv_bin: "{{ nova_bin }}"
   when:
     - nova_virt_type != 'ironic'
-    - "nova_services['nova-compute']['group'] in group_names"
-    - "(nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool is defined) or
-       (nova_cinder_rbd_inuse | bool)"
+    - nova_services['nova-compute']['group'] in group_names
+    - nova_rbd_inuse | bool
   tags:
     - ceph
 
diff --git a/templates/nova.conf.j2 b/templates/nova.conf.j2
index dcd63cd4..5aa98cce 100644
--- a/templates/nova.conf.j2
+++ b/templates/nova.conf.j2
@@ -250,10 +250,12 @@ cpu_model_extra_flags = {{ nova_cpu_model_extra_flags | join(',') }}
 {% endif %}
 {% endif %}
 
-{% if nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool is defined %}
+{% if nova_rbd_inuse %}
 # ceph rbd support
 rbd_user = {{ nova_ceph_client }}
 rbd_secret_uuid = {{ nova_ceph_client_uuid }}
+{% endif %}
+{% if nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool is defined %}
 images_type = rbd
 images_rbd_pool = {{ nova_libvirt_images_rbd_pool }}
 images_rbd_ceph_conf = /etc/ceph/ceph.conf