diff --git a/devstack/lib/ironic b/devstack/lib/ironic
index 5abcdfb91a..eb4fb1414e 100644
--- a/devstack/lib/ironic
+++ b/devstack/lib/ironic
@@ -105,8 +105,11 @@ IRONIC_DEPLOY_RAMDISK=${IRONIC_DEPLOY_RAMDISK:-}
 IRONIC_DEPLOY_KERNEL=${IRONIC_DEPLOY_KERNEL:-}
 IRONIC_DEPLOY_ELEMENT=${IRONIC_DEPLOY_ELEMENT:-deploy-ironic}
 
-IRONIC_AGENT_KERNEL_URL=${IRONIC_AGENT_KERNEL_URL:-http://tarballs.openstack.org/ironic-python-agent/coreos/files/coreos_production_pxe.vmlinuz}
-IRONIC_AGENT_RAMDISK_URL=${IRONIC_AGENT_RAMDISK_URL:-http://tarballs.openstack.org/ironic-python-agent/coreos/files/coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz}
+# NOTE(jroll) this needs to be updated when stable branches are cut
+IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH=${IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH:-stable/mitaka}
+IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH=$(echo $IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH | tr / -)
+IRONIC_AGENT_KERNEL_URL=${IRONIC_AGENT_KERNEL_URL:-http://tarballs.openstack.org/ironic-python-agent/coreos/files/coreos_production_pxe-${IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH}.vmlinuz}
+IRONIC_AGENT_RAMDISK_URL=${IRONIC_AGENT_RAMDISK_URL:-http://tarballs.openstack.org/ironic-python-agent/coreos/files/coreos_production_pxe_image-oem-${IPA_DOWNLOAD_BRANCH}.cpio.gz}
 
 # Which deploy driver to use - valid choices right now
 # are ``pxe_ssh``, ``pxe_ipmitool``, ``agent_ssh`` and ``agent_ipmitool``.