diff --git a/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/legacy/test_os_services.py b/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/legacy/test_os_services.py
index 3ffc2d81e..8af71611d 100644
--- a/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/legacy/test_os_services.py
+++ b/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/legacy/test_os_services.py
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ class TestOsServicesNovaClient(base.ClientTestBase):
         # in serial way (https://review.openstack.org/#/c/217768/), but
         # it's a potential issue for making these tests parallel in the future
         for serv in self.client.services.list():
+            # In Pike the os-services API was made multi-cell aware and it
+            # looks up services by host, which uses the host mapping record
+            # in the API DB which is only populated for nova-compute services,
+            # effectively making it impossible to perform actions like enable
+            # or disable non-nova-compute services since the API won't be able
+            # to find them. So filter out anything that's not nova-compute.
+            if serv.binary != 'nova-compute':
+                continue
             host = self._get_column_value_from_single_row_table(
                 self.nova('service-list --binary %s' % serv.binary), 'Host')
             service = self.nova('service-disable %s %s' % (host, serv.binary))
@@ -46,6 +54,14 @@ class TestOsServicesNovaClient(base.ClientTestBase):
 
     def test_os_service_disable_log_reason(self):
         for serv in self.client.services.list():
+            # In Pike the os-services API was made multi-cell aware and it
+            # looks up services by host, which uses the host mapping record
+            # in the API DB which is only populated for nova-compute services,
+            # effectively making it impossible to perform actions like enable
+            # or disable non-nova-compute services since the API won't be able
+            # to find them. So filter out anything that's not nova-compute.
+            if serv.binary != 'nova-compute':
+                continue
             host = self._get_column_value_from_single_row_table(
                 self.nova('service-list --binary %s' % serv.binary), 'Host')
             service = self.nova('service-disable --reason test_disable %s %s'
diff --git a/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/test_os_services.py b/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/test_os_services.py
index 9fef43397..3da8449c0 100644
--- a/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/test_os_services.py
+++ b/novaclient/tests/functional/v2/test_os_services.py
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ class TestOsServicesNovaClientV211(test_os_services.TestOsServicesNovaClient):
 
     def test_os_services_force_down_force_up(self):
         for serv in self.client.services.list():
+            # In Pike the os-services API was made multi-cell aware and it
+            # looks up services by host, which uses the host mapping record
+            # in the API DB which is only populated for nova-compute services,
+            # effectively making it impossible to perform actions like enable
+            # or disable non-nova-compute services since the API won't be able
+            # to find them. So filter out anything that's not nova-compute.
+            if serv.binary != 'nova-compute':
+                continue
             host = self._get_column_value_from_single_row_table(
                 self.nova('service-list --binary %s' % serv.binary), 'Host')
             service = self.nova('service-force-down %s %s'
diff --git a/novaclient/tests/unit/v2/test_shell.py b/novaclient/tests/unit/v2/test_shell.py
index 442a47bd9..fa4140cb5 100644
--- a/novaclient/tests/unit/v2/test_shell.py
+++ b/novaclient/tests/unit/v2/test_shell.py
@@ -2201,11 +2201,23 @@ class ShellTest(utils.TestCase):
         body = {'host': 'host1', 'binary': 'nova-cert'}
         self.assert_called('PUT', '/os-services/enable', body)
 
+    def test_services_enable_default_binary(self):
+        """Tests that the default binary is nova-compute if not specified."""
+        self.run_command('service-enable host1')
+        body = {'host': 'host1', 'binary': 'nova-compute'}
+        self.assert_called('PUT', '/os-services/enable', body)
+
     def test_services_disable(self):
         self.run_command('service-disable host1 nova-cert')
         body = {'host': 'host1', 'binary': 'nova-cert'}
         self.assert_called('PUT', '/os-services/disable', body)
 
+    def test_services_disable_default_binary(self):
+        """Tests that the default binary is nova-compute if not specified."""
+        self.run_command('service-disable host1')
+        body = {'host': 'host1', 'binary': 'nova-compute'}
+        self.assert_called('PUT', '/os-services/disable', body)
+
     def test_services_disable_with_reason(self):
         self.run_command('service-disable host1 nova-cert --reason no_reason')
         body = {'host': 'host1', 'binary': 'nova-cert',
diff --git a/novaclient/v2/shell.py b/novaclient/v2/shell.py
index 1b59e9572..7896b7c7f 100644
--- a/novaclient/v2/shell.py
+++ b/novaclient/v2/shell.py
@@ -3463,7 +3463,10 @@ def do_service_list(cs, args):
 
 
 @utils.arg('host', metavar='<hostname>', help=_('Name of host.'))
-@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary.'))
+# TODO(mriedem): Eventually just hard-code the binary to "nova-compute".
+@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary. The only '
+           'meaningful binary is "nova-compute". (Deprecated)'),
+           default='nova-compute', nargs='?')
 def do_service_enable(cs, args):
     """Enable the service."""
     result = cs.services.enable(args.host, args.binary)
@@ -3471,7 +3474,10 @@ def do_service_enable(cs, args):
 
 
 @utils.arg('host', metavar='<hostname>', help=_('Name of host.'))
-@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary.'))
+# TODO(mriedem): Eventually just hard-code the binary to "nova-compute".
+@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary. The only '
+           'meaningful binary is "nova-compute". (Deprecated)'),
+           default='nova-compute', nargs='?')
 @utils.arg(
     '--reason',
     metavar='<reason>',
@@ -3490,7 +3496,10 @@ def do_service_disable(cs, args):
 
 @api_versions.wraps("2.11")
 @utils.arg('host', metavar='<hostname>', help=_('Name of host.'))
-@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary.'))
+# TODO(mriedem): Eventually just hard-code the binary to "nova-compute".
+@utils.arg('binary', metavar='<binary>', help=_('Service binary. The only '
+           'meaningful binary is "nova-compute". (Deprecated)'),
+           default='nova-compute', nargs='?')
 @utils.arg(
     '--unset',
     dest='force_down',
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/deprecate-service-binary-arg-2d5c446f5a2409a7.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/deprecate-service-binary-arg-2d5c446f5a2409a7.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..254b42d68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/deprecate-service-binary-arg-2d5c446f5a2409a7.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+deprecations:
+  - |
+    The ``binary`` argument to the ``nova service-enable``,
+    ``nova service-disable``, and ``nova service-force-down`` commands has been
+    deprecated. The only binary that it makes sense to use is ``nova-compute``
+    since disabling a service like ``nova-scheduler`` or ``nova-conductor``
+    does not actually do anything, and starting in the 16.0.0 Pike release the
+    compute API will not be able to look up services other than
+    ``nova-compute`` for these operations.