diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d089d14d..d1b248ee 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@
 .testrepository
 bin
 *.sw[nop]
+*.pyc
diff --git a/hooks/charmhelpers/contrib/network/ip.py b/hooks/charmhelpers/contrib/network/ip.py
index 998f00c1..4efe7993 100644
--- a/hooks/charmhelpers/contrib/network/ip.py
+++ b/hooks/charmhelpers/contrib/network/ip.py
@@ -456,3 +456,18 @@ def get_hostname(address, fqdn=True):
             return result
     else:
         return result.split('.')[0]
+
+
+def port_has_listener(address, port):
+    """
+    Returns True if the address:port is open and being listened to,
+    else False.
+
+    @param address: an IP address or hostname
+    @param port: integer port
+
+    Note calls 'zc' via a subprocess shell
+    """
+    cmd = ['nc', '-z', address, str(port)]
+    result = subprocess.call(cmd)
+    return not(bool(result))
diff --git a/tests/charmhelpers/contrib/openstack/amulet/deployment.py b/tests/charmhelpers/contrib/openstack/amulet/deployment.py
index cbaad10d..d2ede320 100644
--- a/tests/charmhelpers/contrib/openstack/amulet/deployment.py
+++ b/tests/charmhelpers/contrib/openstack/amulet/deployment.py
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ class OpenStackAmuletDeployment(AmuletDeployment):
 
         # Charms which should use the source config option
         use_source = ['mysql', 'mongodb', 'rabbitmq-server', 'ceph',
-                      'ceph-osd', 'ceph-radosgw']
+                      'ceph-osd', 'ceph-radosgw', 'ceph-mon']
 
         # Charms which can not use openstack-origin, ie. many subordinates
         no_origin = ['cinder-ceph', 'hacluster', 'neutron-openvswitch', 'nrpe',