diff --git a/heat/openstack/common/db/sqlalchemy/migration.py b/heat/openstack/common/db/sqlalchemy/migration.py
index 42c675cd0c..c0297ea6da 100644
--- a/heat/openstack/common/db/sqlalchemy/migration.py
+++ b/heat/openstack/common/db/sqlalchemy/migration.py
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ def patch_migrate():
                                 sqlite.SQLiteConstraintGenerator)
 
 
-def db_sync(abs_path, version=None, init_version=0):
+def db_sync(abs_path, version=None, init_version=0, sanity_check=True):
     """Upgrade or downgrade a database.
 
     Function runs the upgrade() or downgrade() functions in change scripts.
@@ -210,7 +210,9 @@ def db_sync(abs_path, version=None, init_version=0):
                          If None - database will update to the latest
                          available version.
     :param init_version: Initial database version
+    :param sanity_check: Require schema sanity checking for all tables
     """
+
     if version is not None:
         try:
             version = int(version)
@@ -220,7 +222,8 @@ def db_sync(abs_path, version=None, init_version=0):
 
     current_version = db_version(abs_path, init_version)
     repository = _find_migrate_repo(abs_path)
-    _db_schema_sanity_check()
+    if sanity_check:
+        _db_schema_sanity_check()
     if version is None or version > current_version:
         return versioning_api.upgrade(get_engine(), repository, version)
     else:
@@ -236,8 +239,15 @@ def _db_schema_sanity_check():
                         'where TABLE_SCHEMA=%s and '
                         'TABLE_COLLATION NOT LIKE "%%utf8%%"')
 
-        table_names = [res[0] for res in engine.execute(onlyutf8_sql,
-                                                        engine.url.database)]
+        # NOTE(morganfainberg): exclude the sqlalchemy-migrate and alembic
+        # versioning tables from the tables we need to verify utf8 status on.
+        # Non-standard table names are not supported.
+        EXCLUDED_TABLES = ['migrate_version', 'alembic_version']
+
+        table_names = [res[0] for res in
+                       engine.execute(onlyutf8_sql, engine.url.database) if
+                       res[0].lower() not in EXCLUDED_TABLES]
+
         if len(table_names) > 0:
             raise ValueError(_('Tables "%s" have non utf8 collation, '
                                'please make sure all tables are CHARSET=utf8'