Using the latest Nova Icehouse (d1197b8) I'm seeing the following:
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] Traceback (most recent call last):
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1030, in _build_instance
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] set_access_ip=set_access_ip)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1400, in _spawn
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] LOG.exception(_('Instance failed to spawn'), instance=instance)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1397, in _spawn
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] block_device_info)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 2101, in spawn
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] admin_pass=admin_password)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 2452, in _create_image
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] content=files, extra_md=extra_md, network_info=network_info)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/api/metadata/base.py", line 129, in __init__
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] ctxt, instance)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/objects/base.py", line 112, in wrapper
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] result = fn(cls, context, *args, **kwargs)
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nova/objects/security_group.py", line 109, in get_by_instance
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] context, instance.uuid))
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7] AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'uuid'
2013-10-30 20:57:13.666 27968 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: ef03c8cf-bb42-4691-94ba-79895ea1f0d7]
This is almost certainly related to the fact that I'm not using the conductor...