diff --git a/nova/rpc.py b/nova/rpc.py
index 1320e50cde30..72be15772b20 100644
--- a/nova/rpc.py
+++ b/nova/rpc.py
@@ -380,7 +380,8 @@ class ClientRouter(periodic_task.PeriodicTasks):
         # NOTE(melwitt): Cells v1 does its own serialization and won't
         # have a serializer available on the client object.
         self.serializer = getattr(default_client, 'serializer', None)
-        self.run_periodic_tasks(nova.context.RequestContext())
+        # Prevent this empty context from overwriting the thread local copy
+        self.run_periodic_tasks(nova.context.RequestContext(overwrite=False))
 
     def _client(self, context, cell_mapping=None):
         if cell_mapping:
diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1627838.py b/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1627838.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..af9be8c26d13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/regressions/test_bug_1627838.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# 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.
+
+from oslo_context import context as common_context
+from oslo_context import fixture as context_fixture
+
+from nova import context
+from nova import test
+
+
+class TestThreadLocalContext(test.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        super(TestThreadLocalContext, self).setUp()
+        self.useFixture(context_fixture.ClearRequestContext())
+        # This will set the thread local copy of the context
+        self.context = context.RequestContext('user', 'project')
+        # Start the compute service to initialize compute RPC
+        self.start_service('compute')
+
+    def test_context_not_overwritten_by_periodic_tasks(self):
+        # None of the periodic tasks should have overwritten the
+        # thread local copy of the context
+        self.assertEqual(self.context, common_context.get_current())