diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1781286.py b/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1781286.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b0f2a4fddfe2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1781286.py
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import fixtures
+from oslo_db import exception as oslo_db_exc
+
+from nova.compute import manager as compute_manager
+from nova import test
+from nova.tests import fixtures as nova_fixtures
+from nova.tests.functional import fixtures as func_fixtures
+from nova.tests.functional import integrated_helpers
+from nova.tests.unit import fake_notifier
+from nova.tests.unit.image import fake as fake_image
+from nova.tests.unit import policy_fixture
+
+
+class RescheduleBuildAvailabilityZoneUpCall(
+        test.TestCase, integrated_helpers.InstanceHelperMixin):
+    """This is a regression test for bug 1781286 which was introduced with
+    a change in Pike to set the instance availability_zone in conductor
+    once a host is selected from the scheduler. The regression in the initial
+    server build case is when a reschedule is triggered, and the cell conductor
+    does not have access to the API DB, it fails with a CantStartEngineError
+    trying to connect to the API DB to get availability zone (aggregate) info
+    about the alternate host selection.
+    """
+    def setUp(self):
+        super(RescheduleBuildAvailabilityZoneUpCall, self).setUp()
+        # Use the standard fixtures.
+        self.useFixture(policy_fixture.RealPolicyFixture())
+        self.useFixture(nova_fixtures.NeutronFixture(self))
+        self.useFixture(func_fixtures.PlacementFixture())
+        fake_image.stub_out_image_service(self)
+        self.addCleanup(fake_image.FakeImageService_reset)
+        # Start controller services.
+        self.api = self.useFixture(nova_fixtures.OSAPIFixture(
+            api_version='v2.1')).admin_api
+        self.start_service('conductor')
+        self.start_service('scheduler')
+        # Start two computes with the fake reschedule driver.
+        self.flags(compute_driver='fake.FakeRescheduleDriver')
+        self.start_service('compute', host='host1')
+        self.start_service('compute', host='host2')
+        # Listen for notifications.
+        fake_notifier.stub_notifier(self)
+        self.addCleanup(fake_notifier.reset)
+
+    def test_server_create_reschedule_blocked_az_up_call(self):
+        # We need to stub out the call to get_host_availability_zone to blow
+        # up once we have gone to the compute service. With the way our
+        # RPC/DB fixtures are setup it's non-trivial to try and separate a
+        # superconductor from a cell conductor so we can configure the cell
+        # conductor from not having access to the API DB but that would be a
+        # a nice thing to have at some point.
+        original_bari = compute_manager.ComputeManager.build_and_run_instance
+
+        def wrap_bari(*args, **kwargs):
+            # Poison the AZ query to blow up as if the cell conductor does not
+            # have access to the API DB.
+            self.useFixture(
+                fixtures.MockPatch(
+                    'nova.objects.AggregateList.get_by_host',
+                    side_effect=oslo_db_exc.CantStartEngineError))
+            return original_bari(*args, **kwargs)
+
+        self.stub_out('nova.compute.manager.ComputeManager.'
+                      'build_and_run_instance', wrap_bari)
+        server = self._build_minimal_create_server_request(
+            self.api, 'test_server_create_reschedule_blocked_az_up_call')
+        server = self.api.post_server({'server': server})
+        # FIXME(mriedem): This is bug 1781286 where we reschedule from the
+        # first failed host to conductor which will try to get the AZ for the
+        # alternate host selection which will fail since it cannot access the
+        # API DB.
+        # Note that we have to wait for the notification before calling the API
+        # to avoid a race where instance.host is not None and the API tries to
+        # hit the AggregateList.get_by_host method we mocked to fail.
+        fake_notifier.wait_for_versioned_notifications(
+            'compute_task.build_instances.error')
+        server = self._wait_for_server_parameter(
+            self.api, server, {'status': 'ERROR',
+                               'OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host': None,
+                               'OS-EXT-STS:task_state': None})
+        # Assert there is a fault injected on the server for the error we
+        # expect.
+        self.assertIn('CantStartEngineError', server['fault']['message'])