diff --git a/inventory/group_vars/copr_aws b/inventory/group_vars/copr_aws
index c86e657450..9c7d32027a 100644
--- a/inventory/group_vars/copr_aws
+++ b/inventory/group_vars/copr_aws
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 devel: false
 datacenter: aws
 
+copr_messaging: true
+
 _forward_src: "forward"
 
 # don't forget to update ip in ./copr-keygen, due to custom firewall rules
diff --git a/inventory/group_vars/copr_dev_aws b/inventory/group_vars/copr_dev_aws
index 618b2da00c..fb78844d3a 100644
--- a/inventory/group_vars/copr_dev_aws
+++ b/inventory/group_vars/copr_dev_aws
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 devel: true
 
+copr_messaging: false
+
 datacenter: aws
 
 _forward_src: "forward_dev"
diff --git a/playbooks/groups/copr-backend.yml b/playbooks/groups/copr-backend.yml
index b1367d6e5d..941775ba82 100644
--- a/playbooks/groups/copr-backend.yml
+++ b/playbooks/groups/copr-backend.yml
@@ -55,3 +55,4 @@
   - copr/backend
   - nagios_client
   - role: messaging/base
+    when: copr_messaging
diff --git a/roles/copr/backend/tasks/main.yml b/roles/copr/backend/tasks/main.yml
index dd30cf42d7..d3cefa0fb5 100644
--- a/roles/copr/backend/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/copr/backend/tasks/main.yml
@@ -230,6 +230,7 @@
 
 - name: create messaging config directory
   file: dest=/etc/copr/msgbuses state=directory owner=copr group=copr mode=0700
+  when: copr_messaging
   tags:
   - config
 
@@ -237,7 +238,7 @@
   template: src="fedora-messaging.conf.j2"
             dest=/etc/copr/msgbuses/fedora-messaging.conf
             owner=copr group=copr mode=0600
-  when: not devel
+  when: copr_messaging
   notify:
   - restart copr-backend
   tags: