diff --git a/swift/common/ring/builder.py b/swift/common/ring/builder.py
index d70d6d2cea..3b87d81e45 100644
--- a/swift/common/ring/builder.py
+++ b/swift/common/ring/builder.py
@@ -772,7 +772,7 @@ class RingBuilder(object):
             required = (wanted[tier] - weighted[tier]) / weighted[tier]
             self.logger.debug('%(tier)s wants %(wanted)s and is weighted for '
                               '%(weight)s so therefore requires %(required)s '
-                              'overload', {'tier': tier,
+                              'overload', {'tier': pretty_dev(dev),
                                            'wanted': wanted[tier],
                                            'weight': weighted[tier],
                                            'required': required})
diff --git a/swift/common/ring/utils.py b/swift/common/ring/utils.py
index 2ca41495ba..9be819bc32 100644
--- a/swift/common/ring/utils.py
+++ b/swift/common/ring/utils.py
@@ -642,6 +642,15 @@ def dispersion_report(builder, search_filter=None, verbose=False):
     }
 
 
+def format_device(region=None, zone=None, ip=None, device=None, **kwargs):
+    """
+    Convert device dict or tier attributes to a representative string.
+
+    :returns: a string, the normalized format of a device tier
+    """
+    return "r%sz%s-%s/%s" % (region, zone, ip, device)
+
+
 def get_tier_name(tier, builder):
     if len(tier) == 1:
         return "r%s" % (tier[0], )
@@ -651,8 +660,8 @@ def get_tier_name(tier, builder):
         return "r%sz%s-%s" % (tier[0], tier[1], tier[2])
     if len(tier) == 4:
         device = builder.devs[tier[3]] or {}
-        return "r%sz%s-%s/%s" % (tier[0], tier[1], tier[2],
-                                 device.get('device', 'IDd%s' % tier[3]))
+        return format_device(tier[0], tier[1], tier[2], device.get(
+            'device', 'IDd%s' % tier[3]))
 
 
 def validate_device_name(device_name):
@@ -663,7 +672,4 @@ def validate_device_name(device_name):
 
 
 def pretty_dev(device):
-    return "r%sz%s-%s/%s" % (device.get('region'),
-                             device.get('zone'),
-                             device.get('ip'),
-                             device.get('id'))
+    return format_device(**device)
diff --git a/test/unit/common/ring/test_utils.py b/test/unit/common/ring/test_utils.py
index c40ce85470..a18a8808d2 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/ring/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/ring/test_utils.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ from swift.common.ring.utils import (tiers_for_dev, build_tier_tree,
                                      validate_args, parse_args,
                                      parse_builder_ring_filename_args,
                                      build_dev_from_opts, dispersion_report,
-                                     parse_address)
+                                     parse_address, get_tier_name, pretty_dev)
 
 
 class TestUtils(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -690,6 +690,21 @@ class TestUtils(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(port, 6200)
         self.assertEqual(rest, 'R127.0.0.1:6200/sda1_some meta data')
 
+    def test_normalized_device_tier_names(self):
+        rb = ring.RingBuilder(8, 3, 0)
+        rb.add_dev({
+            'region': 1,
+            'zone': 1,
+            'ip': '127.0.0.1',
+            'port': 6011,
+            'device': 'd1',
+            'weight': 0.0,
+        })
+        dev = rb.devs[0]
+        expected = 'r1z1-127.0.0.1/d1'
+        self.assertEqual(expected, get_tier_name(tiers_for_dev(dev)[-1], rb))
+        self.assertEqual(expected, pretty_dev(dev))
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()