diff --git a/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py b/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
index d78cb50..875d00e 100644
--- a/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
+++ b/nova/db/sqlalchemy/api.py
@@ -818,6 +818,20 @@ def compute_node_update(context, compute_id, values):
     # scheduler cache of compute node data in case of races.
     values['updated_at'] = timeutils.utcnow()
     convert_objects_related_datetimes(values)
+
+    # We need to return the augmented compute_ref we queried
+    # above because it has all the inventory junk in it,
+    # so we have to pick the model and do the update of both
+    # manually here.
+    compute = models.ComputeNode()
+    compute.id = compute_id
+
+    # This should not be necessary
+    #compute.update({k: v for k, v in compute_ref.items()
+    #                if hasattr(compute, k)})
+
+    compute.update(values)
+    compute.save(context.session)  # <- tries to INSERT
     compute_ref.update(values)

     return compute_ref