diff --git a/app/controllers/api/v2/hosts_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/v2/hosts_controller.rb
index 49c655d87c5..38c22d4e645 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api/v2/hosts_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api/v2/hosts_controller.rb
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def status
 
       def vm_compute_attributes
         render :json => {} unless @host
-        attrs = @host.vm_compute_attributes
+        attrs = @host.vm_compute_attributes || {}
         safe_attrs = {}
         attrs.each_pair do |k,v|
           # clean up the compute attributes to be suitable for output
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ def vm_compute_attributes
             safe_attrs[k] = v
           end
         end
-        render :json => { :compute_attributes => safe_attrs }
+        render :json => safe_attrs
       end
 
       api :PUT, "/hosts/:id/puppetrun", N_("Force a Puppet agent run on the host")
diff --git a/test/functional/api/v2/hosts_controller_test.rb b/test/functional/api/v2/hosts_controller_test.rb
index d5141627559..f3c7f0bfd02 100644
--- a/test/functional/api/v2/hosts_controller_test.rb
+++ b/test/functional/api/v2/hosts_controller_test.rb
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ def last_host
     get :vm_compute_attributes, { :id => host.to_param }
     assert_response :success
     data = JSON.parse(@response.body)
-    assert_equal data, "compute_attributes" => { "cpus" => 4 }
+    assert_equal data, "cpus" => 4
     ComputeResource.any_instance.unstub(:vm_compute_attributes_for)
   end