diff --git a/nova/console/websocketproxy.py b/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
index 6b69239..8b23932 100644
--- a/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
+++ b/nova/console/websocketproxy.py
@@ -304,15 +304,22 @@ class NovaProxyRequestHandlerBase(object):
 class NovaProxyRequestHandler(NovaProxyRequestHandlerBase,
                               websockify.ProxyRequestHandler):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        # Order matters here. ProxyRequestHandler.__init__() will eventually
-        # call new_websocket_client() and we need self.compute_rpcapi set
-        # before then.
-        self.compute_rpcapi = compute_rpcapi.ComputeAPI()
+        self.compute_rpcapi = None
         websockify.ProxyRequestHandler.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

     def socket(self, *args, **kwargs):
         return websockify.WebSocketServer.socket(*args, **kwargs)

+    def handle_websocket(self):
+        # ProxyRequestHandler.__init__() will eventually call
+        # new_websocket_client() and we need self.compute_rpcapi set before
+        # then. handle_websocket() is called before new_websocket_client().
+        # We do this here instead of in __init__() because in the event that
+        # we receive a TCP RST, we do not want to create a ComputeAPI object,
+        # and handle_websocket() is not called in the event of a TCP RST.
+        self.compute_rpcapi = compute_rpcapi.ComputeAPI()
+        return websockify.ProxyRequestHandler.handle_websocket(self)
+

 class NovaWebSocketProxy(websockify.WebSocketProxy):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):