diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/defaults/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/defaults/main.yml
index 8c538380ae..2e95e8bb83 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/defaults/main.yml
@@ -38,9 +38,12 @@
 #            unlike the other options does not attempt to manage package keys or add additional
 #            package repositories.
 ceph_pkg_source: ceph
-
 ceph_apt_pinned_packages: [{ package: "*", release: Inktank,  priority: 1001 }]
 
+# Ubuntu Cloud Archive mirror URL
+# This is only used if 'uca' is the selected option for ceph_pkg_source
+uca_apt_repo_url: "http://ubuntu-cloud.archive.canonical.com/ubuntu"
+
 # Ceph Authentication
 cephx: true
 
@@ -63,19 +66,26 @@ ceph_mons: []
 glance_ceph_client: glance
 cinder_ceph_client: cinder
 cinder_backup_ceph_client: cinder-backup
+
 # by default we assume you use rbd for both cinder and nova, and as libvirt
 # needs to access both volumes (cinder) as boot disks (nova) we default to
 # reuse the cinder_ceph_client
 # only need to change this if you'd use ceph for boot disks and not for volumes
 nova_ceph_client: '{{ cinder_ceph_client }}'
+
 # overruled in user_secrets:
+# TODO(odyssey4me) - the uuid should be removed, there should be no defaults for secrets
 nova_ceph_client_uuid: 457eb676-33da-42ec-9a8c-9293d545c337
 cephkeys_access_group: cephkeys
+
 openstack_service_system_user: null
+
 ceph_cinder_service_names:
   - cinder-volume
   - cinder-backup
+
 ceph_nova_service_names:
   - nova-compute
+
 ceph_glance_service_names:
   - glance-api
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-14.04.yml b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-14.04.yml
index 7297f478bb..190c34adb8 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-14.04.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-14.04.yml
@@ -35,8 +35,9 @@ ceph_stable_release: hammer
 ceph_apt_repo_url: "http://{{ ceph_apt_repo_url_region }}.ceph.com/debian-{{ ceph_stable_release }}/"
 
 # Ubuntu Cloud Archive variables
+# There are no UCA packages for Trusty beyond Mitaka, so the selected
+# release here has to remain at Mitaka.
 uca_openstack_release: mitaka
-uca_apt_repo_url: "http://ubuntu-cloud.archive.canonical.com/ubuntu"
 uca_repo_dist: "{{ ansible_lsb.codename }}-updates/{{ uca_openstack_release }}"
 
 # Apt repositories
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
index a39c8ff057..04ce7f53aa 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ceph_client/vars/ubuntu-16.04.yml
@@ -35,9 +35,7 @@ ceph_stable_release: hammer
 ceph_apt_repo_url: "http://{{ ceph_apt_repo_url_region }}.ceph.com/debian-{{ ceph_stable_release }}/"
 
 # Ubuntu Cloud Archive variables
-# TODO(smatzek) Revisit the default uca release for 16.04 at newton-1
-uca_openstack_release: mitaka
-uca_apt_repo_url: "http://ubuntu-cloud.archive.canonical.com/ubuntu"
+uca_openstack_release: newton
 uca_repo_dist: "{{ ansible_lsb.codename }}-updates/{{ uca_openstack_release }}"
 
 # Apt repositories
diff --git a/tests/roles/bootstrap-host/tasks/prepare_aio_config.yml b/tests/roles/bootstrap-host/tasks/prepare_aio_config.yml
index 787140599f..8eaa7ca354 100644
--- a/tests/roles/bootstrap-host/tasks/prepare_aio_config.yml
+++ b/tests/roles/bootstrap-host/tasks/prepare_aio_config.yml
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
     path: /etc/nodepool
   register: nodepool_dir
 
-- name: Disable nova using UCA in OpenStack-CI
+- name: Set the UCA repository URL in OpenStack-CI
   set_fact:
     uca_apt_repo_url: "{{ bootstrap_host_ubuntu_repo | netorigin }}/ubuntu-cloud-archive"
   when: