diff --git a/swift/common/ring/ring.py b/swift/common/ring/ring.py
index 870a04c435..1f72b1c3b8 100644
--- a/swift/common/ring/ring.py
+++ b/swift/common/ring/ring.py
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ class RingData(object):
         # Write out new-style serialization magic and version:
         file_obj.write(struct.pack('!4sH', 'R1NG', 1))
         ring = self.to_dict()
-        json_text = json.dumps(
+        json_encoder = json.JSONEncoder(sort_keys=True)
+        json_text = json_encoder.encode(
             {'devs': ring['devs'], 'part_shift': ring['part_shift'],
              'replica_count': len(ring['replica2part2dev_id'])})
         json_len = len(json_text)
@@ -95,7 +96,16 @@ class RingData(object):
 
         :param filename: File into which this instance should be serialized.
         """
-        gz_file = GzipFile(filename, 'wb')
+        # Override the timestamp so that the same ring data creates
+        # the same bytes on disk. This makes a checksum comparison a
+        # good way to see if two rings are identical.
+        #
+        # This only works on Python 2.7; on 2.6, we always get the
+        # current time in the gzip output.
+        try:
+            gz_file = GzipFile(filename, 'wb', mtime=1300507380.0)
+        except TypeError:
+            gz_file = GzipFile(filename, 'wb')
         self.serialize_v1(gz_file)
         gz_file.close()
 
diff --git a/test/unit/common/ring/test_ring.py b/test/unit/common/ring/test_ring.py
index 9a37cc31b7..cd4be8862d 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/ring/test_ring.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/ring/test_ring.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import array
 import cPickle as pickle
 import os
+import sys
 import unittest
 from gzip import GzipFile
 from shutil import rmtree
@@ -67,6 +68,29 @@ class TestRingData(unittest.TestCase):
         rd2 = ring.RingData.load(ring_fname)
         self.assert_ring_data_equal(rd, rd2)
 
+    def test_deterministic_serialization(self):
+        """
+        Two identical rings should produce identical .gz files on disk.
+
+        Only true on Python 2.7 or greater.
+        """
+        if sys.version_info[0] == 2 and sys.version_info[1] < 7:
+            return
+        os.mkdir(os.path.join(self.testdir, '1'))
+        os.mkdir(os.path.join(self.testdir, '2'))
+        # These have to have the same filename (not full path,
+        # obviously) since the filename gets encoded in the gzip data.
+        ring_fname1 = os.path.join(self.testdir, '1', 'the.ring.gz')
+        ring_fname2 = os.path.join(self.testdir, '2', 'the.ring.gz')
+        rd = ring.RingData(
+            [array.array('H', [0, 1, 0, 1]), array.array('H',[0, 1, 0, 1])],
+            [{'id': 0, 'zone': 0}, {'id': 1, 'zone': 1}], 30)
+        rd.save(ring_fname1)
+        rd.save(ring_fname2)
+        with open(ring_fname1) as ring1:
+            with open(ring_fname2) as ring2:
+                self.assertEqual(ring1.read(), ring2.read())
+
 
 class TestRing(unittest.TestCase):