diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index acd8fded26..2387e34bed 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -33,7 +33,11 @@ commands =
     python -bb -m testtools.run \
         trove/tests/unittests/common/test_context.py \
         trove/tests/unittests/common/test_exception.py \
+        trove/tests/unittests/common/test_notification.py \
+        trove/tests/unittests/common/test_remote.py \
+        trove/tests/unittests/common/test_stream_codecs.py \
         trove/tests/unittests/common/test_template.py \
+        trove/tests/unittests/common/test_utils.py \
         trove/tests/unittests/common/test_wsgi.py
 
 [testenv:debug]
diff --git a/trove/common/utils.py b/trove/common/utils.py
index f86b306db7..4f376c0238 100644
--- a/trove/common/utils.py
+++ b/trove/common/utils.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import inspect
 import os
 import shutil
 import time
-import types
 import uuid
 
 from eventlet.timeout import Timeout
@@ -32,6 +31,7 @@ from oslo_utils import importutils
 from oslo_utils import strutils
 from oslo_utils import timeutils
 from passlib import utils as passlib_utils
+import six
 import six.moves.urllib.parse as urlparse
 
 from trove.common import cfg
@@ -326,4 +326,4 @@ def is_collection(item):
     """Return True is a given item is an iterable collection, but not a string.
     """
     return (isinstance(item, collections.Iterable) and
-            not isinstance(item, types.StringTypes))
+            not isinstance(item, (bytes, six.text_type)))
diff --git a/trove/tests/fakes/swift.py b/trove/tests/fakes/swift.py
index 4dcf209ee3..4e1eabdcc8 100644
--- a/trove/tests/fakes/swift.py
+++ b/trove/tests/fakes/swift.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 
 from hashlib import md5
 from mock import MagicMock, patch
-import httplib
 import json
 import os
 import socket
@@ -24,6 +23,7 @@ import swiftclient.client as swift_client
 import uuid
 
 from oslo_log import log as logging
+from six.moves import http_client
 from swiftclient import client as swift
 
 from trove.common.i18n import _  # noqa
@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@ class FakeSwiftConnection(object):
         LOG.debug("fake head_container(%s)" % container)
         if container == 'missing_container':
             raise swift.ClientException('fake exception',
-                                        http_status=httplib.NOT_FOUND)
+                                        http_status=http_client.NOT_FOUND)
         elif container == 'unauthorized_container':
             raise swift.ClientException('fake exception',
-                                        http_status=httplib.UNAUTHORIZED)
+                                        http_status=http_client.UNAUTHORIZED)
         elif container == 'socket_error_on_head':
             raise socket.error(111, 'ECONNREFUSED')
         pass
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ class FakeSwiftConnection(object):
                   {'container': container, 'name': name})
         checksum = md5()
         if self.manifest_prefix and self.manifest_name == name:
-            for object_name in sorted(self.container_objects.iterkeys()):
+            for object_name in sorted(self.container_objects):
                 object_checksum = md5(self.container_objects[object_name])
                 # The manifest file etag for a HEAD or GET is the checksum of
                 # the concatenated checksums.
diff --git a/trove/tests/unittests/common/test_stream_codecs.py b/trove/tests/unittests/common/test_stream_codecs.py
index 0b62d079fa..6659bd05d7 100644
--- a/trove/tests/unittests/common/test_stream_codecs.py
+++ b/trove/tests/unittests/common/test_stream_codecs.py
@@ -30,8 +30,9 @@ class TestStreamCodecs(trove_testtools.TestCase):
 
     def test_serialize_deserialize_base64codec(self):
         random_data = bytearray(Random.new().read(12))
-        data = ['abc',
-                'numbers01234',
+        data = [b'abc',
+                b'numbers01234',
+                b'non-ascii:\xe9\xff',
                 random_data]
 
         codec = stream_codecs.Base64Codec()