diff --git a/tools/xenserver/vm_vdi_cleaner.py b/tools/xenserver/vm_vdi_cleaner.py
index d2137b8e97..3e860006d5 100755
--- a/tools/xenserver/vm_vdi_cleaner.py
+++ b/tools/xenserver/vm_vdi_cleaner.py
@@ -17,12 +17,14 @@
 """vm_vdi_cleaner.py - List or clean orphaned VDIs/instances on XenServer."""
 
 import doctest
+import gettext
 import os
 import sys
 
 from oslo.config import cfg
 import XenAPI
 
+gettext.install('nova', unicode=1)
 
 possible_topdir = os.getcwd()
 if os.path.exists(os.path.join(possible_topdir, "nova", "__init__.py")):