diff --git a/nova/cmd/manage.py b/nova/cmd/manage.py
index 83e523935108..c799e55104f1 100644
--- a/nova/cmd/manage.py
+++ b/nova/cmd/manage.py
@@ -1201,12 +1201,16 @@ class CellCommands(object):
 class CellV2Commands(object):
     """Commands for managing cells v2."""
 
-    # TODO(melwitt): Remove this when the oslo.messaging function
-    # for assembling a transport url from ConfigOpts is available
-    @args('--transport-url', metavar='<transport url>', required=True,
-          dest='transport_url',
+    def _validate_transport_url(self, transport_url):
+        transport_url = transport_url or CONF.transport_url
+        if not transport_url:
+            print('Must specify --transport-url if [DEFAULT]/transport_url '
+                  'is not set in the configuration file.')
+        return transport_url
+
+    @args('--transport-url', metavar='<transport url>', dest='transport_url',
           help='The transport url for the cell message queue')
-    def simple_cell_setup(self, transport_url):
+    def simple_cell_setup(self, transport_url=None):
         """Simple cellsv2 setup.
 
         This simplified command is for use by existing non-cells users to
@@ -1218,6 +1222,9 @@ class CellV2Commands(object):
         if CONF.cells.enable:
             print('CellsV1 users cannot use this simplified setup command')
             return 2
+        transport_url = self._validate_transport_url(transport_url)
+        if not transport_url:
+            return 1
         ctxt = context.RequestContext()
         try:
             cell0_mapping = self.map_cell0()
@@ -1430,10 +1437,8 @@ class CellV2Commands(object):
 
           nova-manage cell_v2 map_cell_and_hosts --config-file <cell nova.conf>
         """
-        transport_url = CONF.transport_url or transport_url
+        transport_url = self._validate_transport_url(transport_url)
         if not transport_url:
-            print('Must specify --transport-url if [DEFAULT]/transport_url '
-                  'is not set in the configuration file.')
             return 1
         self._map_cell_and_hosts(transport_url, name, verbose)
         # online_data_migrations established a pattern of 0 meaning everything
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/test_nova_manage.py b/nova/tests/unit/test_nova_manage.py
index ddb5bc010b46..f1f01c728eed 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/test_nova_manage.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/test_nova_manage.py
@@ -1348,3 +1348,23 @@ class CellV2CommandsTestCase(test.TestCase):
         mock_cell_mapping_get_by_uuid.assert_not_called()
         mock_cell_mapping_get_all.assert_called_once_with(
             test.MatchType(context.RequestContext))
+
+    def test_validate_transport_url_in_conf(self):
+        from_conf = 'fake://user:pass@host:port/'
+        self.flags(transport_url=from_conf)
+        self.assertEqual(from_conf,
+                         self.commands._validate_transport_url(None))
+
+    def test_validate_transport_url_on_command_line(self):
+        from_cli = 'fake://user:pass@host:port/'
+        self.assertEqual(from_cli,
+                         self.commands._validate_transport_url(from_cli))
+
+    def test_validate_transport_url_missing(self):
+        self.assertIsNone(self.commands._validate_transport_url(None))
+
+    def test_validate_transport_url_favors_command_line(self):
+        self.flags(transport_url='fake://user:pass@host:port/')
+        from_cli = 'fake://otheruser:otherpass@otherhost:otherport'
+        self.assertEqual(from_cli,
+                         self.commands._validate_transport_url(from_cli))