diff --git a/NodeInstance.py b/NodeInstance.py
index 55c58ef8..31bd9d5a 100644
--- a/NodeInstance.py
+++ b/NodeInstance.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ class NodeInstance(threading.Thread):
                     least_mem = node_freemem
                     least_host = node.getname()
 
-            self.zk.set('/domains/' + domain + '/state', b'migrate')
+            self.zk.set('/domains/' + domain + '/state', 'flush'.encode('ascii'))
             self.zk.set('/domains/' + domain + '/hypervisor', least_host.encode('ascii'))
 
     def run(self):
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class NodeInstance(threading.Thread):
         # Gather data about hypervisor
         self.name = conn.getHostname()
         self.cpucount = conn.getCPUMap()[0]
-        self.zk.set(self.zkey + '/state', self.name.encode('ascii'))
+        self.zk.set(self.zkey + '/state', 'start'.encode('ascii'))
         self.zk.set(self.zkey + '/cpucount', str(self.cpucount).encode('ascii'))
         print("Node hostname: %s" % self.name)
         print("CPUs: %s" % self.cpucount)
diff --git a/pvcd.py b/pvcd.py
index f2c62d13..b7c74d4f 100755
--- a/pvcd.py
+++ b/pvcd.py
@@ -48,6 +48,17 @@ def cleanup():
 
 atexit.register(cleanup)
 
+# Check if our node exists in Zookeeper, and create it if not
+mynodestring = '/nodes/%s' % myhostname
+if not zk.exists('%s' + mynodestring):
+    zk.create('%s' % mynodestring, 'hypervisor'.encode('ascii'))
+    zk.create('%s/state' % mynodestring, 'stop'.encode('ascii'))
+    zk.create('%s/cpucount' % mynodestring, '0'.encode('ascii'))
+    zk.create('%s/memfree' % mynodestring, '0'.encode('ascii'))
+    zk.create('%s/cpuload' % mynodestring, '0.0'.encode('ascii'))
+
+time.sleep(1)
+
 node_list = zk.get_children('/nodes')
 print(node_list)
 
@@ -62,6 +73,8 @@ for node in node_list:
     if t_node[node].name == myhostname:
         t_node[node].start()
 
+time.sleep(1)
+
 for domain in domain_list:
     s_domain[domain] = VMInstance.VMInstance(domain, zk, t_node[myhostname]);