diff --git a/etc/tempest.conf.sample b/etc/tempest.conf.sample
index 0f2b2cf..13ee8fe 100644
--- a/etc/tempest.conf.sample
+++ b/etc/tempest.conf.sample
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@
 #
 
 # List of logger=LEVEL pairs. (list value)
-#default_log_levels = amqp=WARN,amqplib=WARN,boto=WARN,qpid=WARN,sqlalchemy=WARN,suds=INFO,oslo.messaging=INFO,iso8601=WARN,requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool=WARN,urllib3.connectionpool=WARN
+#default_log_levels = amqp=WARN,amqplib=WARN,boto=WARN,qpid=WARN,sqlalchemy=WARN,suds=INFO,oslo.messaging=INFO,iso8601=WARN,requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool=WARN,urllib3.connectionpool=WARN,websocket=WARN,keystonemiddleware=WARN,routes.middleware=WARN,stevedore=WARN
 
 # Enables or disables fatal status of deprecations. (boolean value)
 #fatal_deprecations = false
diff --git a/tempest/openstack/common/__init__.py b/tempest/openstack/common/__init__.py
index d1223ea..e69de29 100644
--- a/tempest/openstack/common/__init__.py
+++ b/tempest/openstack/common/__init__.py
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-#
-#    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 six
-
-
-six.add_move(six.MovedModule('mox', 'mox', 'mox3.mox'))
diff --git a/tempest/openstack/common/_i18n.py b/tempest/openstack/common/_i18n.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdc8327
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tempest/openstack/common/_i18n.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#    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.
+
+"""oslo.i18n integration module.
+
+See http://docs.openstack.org/developer/oslo.i18n/usage.html
+
+"""
+
+try:
+    import oslo.i18n
+
+    # NOTE(dhellmann): This reference to o-s-l-o will be replaced by the
+    # application name when this module is synced into the separate
+    # repository. It is OK to have more than one translation function
+    # using the same domain, since there will still only be one message
+    # catalog.
+    _translators = oslo.i18n.TranslatorFactory(domain='tempest')
+
+    # The primary translation function using the well-known name "_"
+    _ = _translators.primary
+
+    # Translators for log levels.
+    #
+    # The abbreviated names are meant to reflect the usual use of a short
+    # name like '_'. The "L" is for "log" and the other letter comes from
+    # the level.
+    _LI = _translators.log_info
+    _LW = _translators.log_warning
+    _LE = _translators.log_error
+    _LC = _translators.log_critical
+except ImportError:
+    # NOTE(dims): Support for cases where a project wants to use
+    # code from tempest-incubator, but is not ready to be internationalized
+    # (like tempest)
+    _ = _LI = _LW = _LE = _LC = lambda x: x
diff --git a/tempest/openstack/common/log.py b/tempest/openstack/common/log.py
index 44102c0..26cd6ad 100644
--- a/tempest/openstack/common/log.py
+++ b/tempest/openstack/common/log.py
@@ -33,20 +33,20 @@
 import logging.config
 import logging.handlers
 import os
+import socket
 import sys
 import traceback
 
 from oslo.config import cfg
+from oslo.serialization import jsonutils
+from oslo.utils import importutils
 import six
 from six import moves
 
-from tempest.openstack.common.gettextutils import _
-from tempest.openstack.common import importutils
-from tempest.openstack.common import jsonutils
+_PY26 = sys.version_info[0:2] == (2, 6)
+
+from tempest.openstack.common._i18n import _
 from tempest.openstack.common import local
-# NOTE(flaper87): Pls, remove when graduating this module
-# from the incubator.
-from tempest.openstack.common.strutils import mask_password  # noqa
 
 
 _DEFAULT_LOG_DATE_FORMAT = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
@@ -124,7 +124,9 @@
                       'qpid=WARN', 'sqlalchemy=WARN', 'suds=INFO',
                       'oslo.messaging=INFO', 'iso8601=WARN',
                       'requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool=WARN',
-                      'urllib3.connectionpool=WARN']
+                      'urllib3.connectionpool=WARN', 'websocket=WARN',
+                      "keystonemiddleware=WARN", "routes.middleware=WARN",
+                      "stevedore=WARN"]
 
 log_opts = [
     cfg.StrOpt('logging_context_format_string',
@@ -227,6 +229,15 @@
     def audit(self, msg, *args, **kwargs):
         self.log(logging.AUDIT, msg, *args, **kwargs)
 
+    def isEnabledFor(self, level):
+        if _PY26:
+            # This method was added in python 2.7 (and it does the exact
+            # same logic, so we need to do the exact same logic so that
+            # python 2.6 has this capability as well).
+            return self.logger.isEnabledFor(level)
+        else:
+            return super(BaseLoggerAdapter, self).isEnabledFor(level)
+
 
 class LazyAdapter(BaseLoggerAdapter):
     def __init__(self, name='unknown', version='unknown'):
@@ -289,11 +300,10 @@
         self.warn(stdmsg, *args, **kwargs)
 
     def process(self, msg, kwargs):
-        # NOTE(mrodden): catch any Message/other object and
-        #                coerce to unicode before they can get
-        #                to the python logging and possibly
-        #                cause string encoding trouble
-        if not isinstance(msg, six.string_types):
+        # NOTE(jecarey): If msg is not unicode, coerce it into unicode
+        #                before it can get to the python logging and
+        #                possibly cause string encoding trouble
+        if not isinstance(msg, six.text_type):
             msg = six.text_type(msg)
 
         if 'extra' not in kwargs:
@@ -410,18 +420,20 @@
     sys.excepthook = _create_logging_excepthook(product_name)
 
 
-def set_defaults(logging_context_format_string,
+def set_defaults(logging_context_format_string=None,
                  default_log_levels=None):
     # Just in case the caller is not setting the
     # default_log_level. This is insurance because
     # we introduced the default_log_level parameter
     # later in a backwards in-compatible change
-    if default_log_levels is None:
-        default_log_levels = DEFAULT_LOG_LEVELS
-    cfg.set_defaults(
+    if default_log_levels is not None:
+        cfg.set_defaults(
             log_opts,
-            logging_context_format_string=logging_context_format_string,
             default_log_levels=default_log_levels)
+    if logging_context_format_string is not None:
+        cfg.set_defaults(
+            log_opts,
+            logging_context_format_string=logging_context_format_string)
 
 
 def _find_facility_from_conf():
@@ -470,18 +482,6 @@
     for handler in log_root.handlers:
         log_root.removeHandler(handler)
 
-    if CONF.use_syslog:
-        facility = _find_facility_from_conf()
-        # TODO(bogdando) use the format provided by RFCSysLogHandler
-        #   after existing syslog format deprecation in J
-        if CONF.use_syslog_rfc_format:
-            syslog = RFCSysLogHandler(address='/dev/log',
-                                      facility=facility)
-        else:
-            syslog = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(address='/dev/log',
-                                                    facility=facility)
-        log_root.addHandler(syslog)
-
     logpath = _get_log_file_path()
     if logpath:
         filelog = logging.handlers.WatchedFileHandler(logpath)
@@ -540,6 +540,20 @@
         else:
             logger.setLevel(level_name)
 
+    if CONF.use_syslog:
+        try:
+            facility = _find_facility_from_conf()
+            # TODO(bogdando) use the format provided by RFCSysLogHandler
+            #   after existing syslog format deprecation in J
+            if CONF.use_syslog_rfc_format:
+                syslog = RFCSysLogHandler(facility=facility)
+            else:
+                syslog = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(facility=facility)
+            log_root.addHandler(syslog)
+        except socket.error:
+            log_root.error('Unable to add syslog handler. Verify that syslog '
+                           'is running.')
+
 
 _loggers = {}
 
@@ -609,6 +623,12 @@
     def format(self, record):
         """Uses contextstring if request_id is set, otherwise default."""
 
+        # NOTE(jecarey): If msg is not unicode, coerce it into unicode
+        #                before it can get to the python logging and
+        #                possibly cause string encoding trouble
+        if not isinstance(record.msg, six.text_type):
+            record.msg = six.text_type(record.msg)
+
         # store project info
         record.project = self.project
         record.version = self.version