diff --git a/nova/tests/test_xenapi.py b/nova/tests/test_xenapi.py
index b543f3e0f68..a6adb751e6a 100644
--- a/nova/tests/test_xenapi.py
+++ b/nova/tests/test_xenapi.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 from nova.virt.xenapi import agent
 from nova.virt.xenapi import driver as xenapi_conn
 from nova.virt.xenapi import fake as xenapi_fake
+from nova.virt.xenapi import host
 from nova.virt.xenapi import pool
 from nova.virt.xenapi import pool_states
 from nova.virt.xenapi import vm_utils
@@ -1275,6 +1276,43 @@ def test_get_host_uptime(self):
         result = self.conn.get_host_uptime('host')
         self.assertEqual(result, 'fake uptime')
 
+    def test_supported_instances_is_included_in_host_state(self):
+        stats = self.conn.get_host_stats()
+        self.assertTrue('supported_instances' in stats)
+
+    def test_supported_instances_is_calculated_by_to_supported_instances(self):
+
+        def to_supported_instances(somedata):
+            self.assertEquals(None, somedata)
+            return "SOMERETURNVALUE"
+        self.stubs.Set(host, 'to_supported_instances', to_supported_instances)
+
+        stats = self.conn.get_host_stats()
+        self.assertEquals("SOMERETURNVALUE", stats['supported_instances'])
+
+
+class ToSupportedInstancesTestCase(test.TestCase):
+    def test_default_return_value(self):
+        self.assertEquals([],
+            host.to_supported_instances(None))
+
+    def test_return_value(self):
+        self.assertEquals([('x86_64', 'xapi', 'xen')],
+             host.to_supported_instances([u'xen-3.0-x86_64']))
+
+    def test_invalid_values_do_not_break(self):
+        self.assertEquals([('x86_64', 'xapi', 'xen')],
+             host.to_supported_instances([u'xen-3.0-x86_64', 'spam']))
+
+    def test_multiple_values(self):
+        self.assertEquals(
+            [
+                ('x86_64', 'xapi', 'xen'),
+                ('x86_32', 'xapi', 'hvm')
+            ],
+            host.to_supported_instances([u'xen-3.0-x86_64', 'hvm-3.0-x86_32'])
+        )
+
 
 class XenAPIAutoDiskConfigTestCase(stubs.XenAPITestBase):
     def setUp(self):
diff --git a/nova/virt/xenapi/host.py b/nova/virt/xenapi/host.py
index 9db7089253b..b4361ae0342 100644
--- a/nova/virt/xenapi/host.py
+++ b/nova/virt/xenapi/host.py
@@ -162,6 +162,9 @@ def update_status(self):
             data["disk_total"] = total
             data["disk_used"] = used
             data["disk_available"] = total - used
+            data["supported_instances"] = to_supported_instances(
+                data.get("host_capabilities")
+            )
             host_memory = data.get('host_memory', None)
             if host_memory:
                 data["host_memory_total"] = host_memory.get('total', 0)
@@ -173,6 +176,22 @@ def update_status(self):
             self._stats = data
 
 
+def to_supported_instances(host_capabilities):
+    if not host_capabilities:
+        return []
+
+    result = []
+    for capability in host_capabilities:
+        try:
+            ostype, _version, arch = capability.split("-")
+            result.append((arch, 'xapi', ostype))
+        except ValueError:
+            LOG.warning(
+                _("Failed to extract instance support from %s"), capability)
+
+    return result
+
+
 def call_xenhost(session, method, arg_dict):
     """There will be several methods that will need this general
     handling for interacting with the xenhost plugin, so this abstracts
diff --git a/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/xenhost b/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/xenhost
index e556931bbb3..4d219390860 100755
--- a/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/xenhost
+++ b/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/xenhost
@@ -398,7 +398,9 @@ def cleanup(dct):
         for oc_fld in oc.split("; "):
             ock, ocv = strip_kv(oc_fld)
             ocd[ock] = ocv
-#    out["host_capabilities"] = dct.get("capabilities", "").split("; ")
+
+    capabilities = dct.get("capabilities", "")
+    out["host_capabilities"] = capabilities.replace(";", "").split()
 #    out["host_allowed-operations"] = dct.get(
 #            "allowed-operations", "").split("; ")
 #    lsrv = dct.get("license-server", "")