diff -rupr a/cloudinit/distros/photon.py b/cloudinit/distros/photon.py
--- a/cloudinit/distros/photon.py	2016-12-13 14:48:43.551079771 -0800
+++ b/cloudinit/distros/photon.py	2016-12-13 18:39:03.396187698 -0800
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ class Distro(distros.Distro):
     hostname_conf_fn = "/etc/hostname"
     locale_conf_fn = "/etc/default/locale"
     network_conf_fn = "/etc/network/interfaces"
+    init_cmd = ['systemctl']  # init scripts
 
     def __init__(self, name, cfg, paths):
         distros.Distro.__init__(self, name, cfg, paths)