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)