diff --git a/nova/compute/manager.py b/nova/compute/manager.py
index 35da26303c69..ab1ae0ba02ae 100644
--- a/nova/compute/manager.py
+++ b/nova/compute/manager.py
@@ -970,8 +970,15 @@ class ComputeManager(manager.Manager):
         except NotImplementedError as e:
             LOG.debug(e, instance=instance)
         except exception.VirtualInterfacePlugException:
-            # we don't want an exception to block the init_host
-            LOG.exception("Vifs plug failed", instance=instance)
+            # NOTE(mriedem): If we get here, it could be because the vif_type
+            # in the cache is "binding_failed". The only way to fix that is to
+            # try and bind the ports again, which would be expensive here on
+            # host startup. We could add a check to _heal_instance_info_cache
+            # to handle this, but probably only if the instance task_state is
+            # None.
+            LOG.exception('Virtual interface plugging failed for instance. '
+                          'The port binding:host_id may need to be manually '
+                          'updated.', instance=instance)
             self._set_instance_obj_error_state(context, instance)
             return
 
diff --git a/nova/network/os_vif_util.py b/nova/network/os_vif_util.py
index fb5d3c75a55e..4c61157b7b4f 100644
--- a/nova/network/os_vif_util.py
+++ b/nova/network/os_vif_util.py
@@ -462,6 +462,20 @@ def _nova_to_osvif_vif_hostdev_physical(vif):
     raise NotImplementedError()
 
 
+# VIF_TYPE_BINDING_FAILED = 'binding_failed'
+def _nova_to_osvif_vif_binding_failed(vif):
+    """Special handler for the "binding_failed" vif type.
+
+    The "binding_failed" vif type indicates port binding to a host failed
+    and we are trying to plug the vifs again, which will fail because we
+    do not know the actual real vif type, like ovs, bridge, etc. We raise
+    NotImplementedError to indicate to the caller that we cannot handle
+    this type of vif rather than the generic "Unsupported VIF type" error
+    in nova_to_osvif_vif.
+    """
+    raise NotImplementedError()
+
+
 def nova_to_osvif_vif(vif):
     """Convert a Nova VIF model to an os-vif object
 
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/network/test_os_vif_util.py b/nova/tests/unit/network/test_os_vif_util.py
index 0aadf14e5999..8b87a7698d14 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/network/test_os_vif_util.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/network/test_os_vif_util.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 from os_vif import objects as osv_objects
 from os_vif.objects import fields as os_vif_fields
+import six
 
 from nova import exception
 from nova.network import model
@@ -972,9 +973,20 @@ class OSVIFUtilTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase):
                 subnets=[]),
         )
 
-        self.assertRaises(exception.NovaException,
-                          os_vif_util.nova_to_osvif_vif,
-                          vif)
+        ex = self.assertRaises(exception.NovaException,
+                               os_vif_util.nova_to_osvif_vif, vif)
+        self.assertIn('Unsupported VIF type wibble', six.text_type(ex))
+
+    def test_nova_to_osvif_vif_binding_failed(self):
+        vif = model.VIF(
+            id="dc065497-3c8d-4f44-8fb4-e1d33c16a536",
+            type="binding_failed",
+            address="22:52:25:62:e2:aa",
+            network=model.Network(
+                id="b82c1929-051e-481d-8110-4669916c7915",
+                label="Demo Net",
+                subnets=[]),)
+        self.assertIsNone(os_vif_util.nova_to_osvif_vif(vif))
 
     def test_nova_to_osvif_vhostuser_vrouter(self):
         vif = model.VIF(