diff --git a/playbooks/manual/upgrade/odcs.yml b/playbooks/manual/upgrade/odcs.yml
index d25efbbac5..8fd05b9fc1 100644
--- a/playbooks/manual/upgrade/odcs.yml
+++ b/playbooks/manual/upgrade/odcs.yml
@@ -90,6 +90,8 @@
   - odcs/backend
 
   post_tasks:
+  - name: Start the odcs backend
+    service: name="odcs-backend" state=started
   - name: tell nagios to unshush w.r.t. the backend
     nagios: action=unsilence service=host host={{ inventory_hostname_short }}{{ env_suffix }}
     delegate_to: noc01.phx2.fedoraproject.org