diff --git a/server/src/com/cloud/api/ApiServer.java b/server/src/com/cloud/api/ApiServer.java
index de67ec815aa..807650f7daf 100755
--- a/server/src/com/cloud/api/ApiServer.java
+++ b/server/src/com/cloud/api/ApiServer.java
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ import org.apache.http.protocol.ResponseServer;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
 import com.cloud.api.response.ApiResponseSerializer;
+import com.cloud.api.response.ExceptionResponse;
 import com.cloud.api.response.ListResponse;
 import com.cloud.async.AsyncJob;
 import com.cloud.async.AsyncJobManager;
@@ -270,18 +271,29 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
                 String responseText = handleRequest(parameterMap, true, responseType, sb);
                 sb.append(" 200 " + ((responseText == null) ? 0 : responseText.length()));
 
-                writeResponse(response, responseText, false, responseType);
+                writeResponse(response, responseText, HttpStatus.SC_OK, responseType, null);
             } catch (ServerApiException se) {
-                try {
-                    response.setStatusCode(se.getErrorCode());
-                    response.setReasonPhrase(se.getDescription());
-                    BasicHttpEntity body = new BasicHttpEntity();
-                    body.setContentType("text/xml");
-                    String responseStr = "<error>"+se.getErrorCode()+" : "+se.getDescription()+"</error>";
-                    body.setContent(new ByteArrayInputStream(responseStr.getBytes("UTF-8")));
-                    response.setEntity(body);
+                String responseName = null;
+                String cmdClassName = null;
 
-                    sb.append(" " + se.getErrorCode() + " " + responseStr.length());
+                try {
+                    if (se.getErrorCode() == BaseCmd.UNSUPPORTED_ACTION_ERROR) {
+                        responseName = "errorresponse";
+                    } else {
+                        String cmdName = ((String[])parameterMap.get("command"))[0];
+                        cmdClassName = _apiCommands.getProperty(cmdName);
+                        Class claz = Class.forName(cmdClassName);
+                        responseName = ((BaseCmd)claz.newInstance()).getCommandName();
+                    }
+                    
+                    ExceptionResponse apiResponse = new ExceptionResponse();
+                    apiResponse.setErrorCode(se.getErrorCode());
+                    apiResponse.setErrorText(se.getDescription());
+                    apiResponse.setResponseName(responseName);
+                    String responseText = ApiResponseSerializer.toSerializedString(apiResponse, responseType);
+                    
+                    writeResponse(response, responseText, se.getErrorCode(), responseType, se.getDescription());
+                    sb.append(" " + se.getErrorCode() + " " + responseText.length());
                 } catch (Exception e) {
                     s_logger.error("IO Exception responding to http request", e);
                 }
@@ -312,7 +324,7 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
                         s_logger.trace("   key: " + keyStr + ", value: " + ((value == null) ? "'null'" : value[0]));
                     }
                 }
-                response = buildErrorResponse("invalid request, no command sent", responseType);
+                throw new ServerApiException(BaseCmd.UNSUPPORTED_ACTION_ERROR, "Invalid request, no command sent");
             } else {
                 Map<String, String> paramMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
                 Set keys = params.keySet();
@@ -347,10 +359,10 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
                     response = queueCommand(cmdObj, paramMap);
                     buildAuditTrail(auditTrailSb, command[0], response);
                 } else {
-                    String errorString = " unknown API command: " + ((command == null) ? "null" : command[0]);
+                    String errorString = "Unknown API command: " + ((command == null) ? "null" : command[0]);
                     s_logger.warn(errorString);
                     auditTrailSb.append(" " +errorString);
-                    response = buildErrorResponse(errorString, responseType);
+                    throw new ServerApiException(BaseCmd.UNSUPPORTED_ACTION_ERROR, errorString);
                 }
             }
         } catch (Exception ex) {
@@ -529,7 +541,6 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
             	
             }
             
-
             // - build a request string with sorted params, make sure it's all lowercase
             // - sign the request, verify the signature is the same
             List<String> parameterNames = new ArrayList<String>();
@@ -559,7 +570,6 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
                 }
             }
             
-
             // if api/secret key are passed to the parameters
             if ((signature == null) || (apiKey == null)) {
                 if (s_logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
@@ -653,10 +663,6 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
         	}
         	
         	Account account = _ms.findAccountById(userAcct.getAccountId());
-
-//            String networkType = _ms.getConfigurationValue("network.type");
-//            if (networkType == null) 
-//            	networkType = "vnet";
             
             String hypervisorType = _ms.getConfigurationValue("hypervisor.type");
             if (hypervisorType == null) 
@@ -679,7 +685,6 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
             session.setAttribute("account", account.getAccountName());
             session.setAttribute("domainid", account.getDomainId());
             session.setAttribute("type", Short.valueOf(account.getType()).toString());
-//            session.setAttribute("networktype", networkType);
             session.setAttribute("hypervisortype", hypervisorType);
             session.setAttribute("directattachsecuritygroupsenabled", directAttachSecurityGroupsEnabled);
             session.setAttribute("systemvmuselocalstorage", systemVmUseLocalStorage);
@@ -741,9 +746,10 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
     }
 
     // FIXME: rather than isError, we might was to pass in the status code to give more flexibility
-    private void writeResponse(HttpResponse resp, final String responseText, final boolean isError, String responseType) {
+    private void writeResponse(HttpResponse resp, final String responseText, final int statusCode, String responseType, String reasonPhrase) {
         try {
-            resp.setStatusCode(isError? HttpStatus.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR : HttpStatus.SC_OK);
+            resp.setStatusCode(statusCode);
+            resp.setReasonPhrase(reasonPhrase);
 
             BasicHttpEntity body = new BasicHttpEntity();
             if (BaseCmd.RESPONSE_TYPE_JSON.equalsIgnoreCase(responseType)) {
@@ -768,22 +774,6 @@ public class ApiServer implements HttpRequestHandler {
         }
     }
 
-    private String buildErrorResponse(String errorStr, String responseType) {
-        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
-        if (BaseCmd.RESPONSE_TYPE_JSON.equalsIgnoreCase(responseType)) {
-            // JSON response
-            sb.append("{ \"error\" : { \"description\" : \"" + errorStr + "\" } }");
-        } else {
-            sb.append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"ISO-8859-1\"?>");
-            sb.append("<error><description>");
-            sb.append(errorStr);
-            sb.append("</description></error>");
-        }
-        return sb.toString();
-    }
-
-
-
     // FIXME:  the following two threads are copied from http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpcomponents/httpcore/trunk/httpcore/src/examples/org/apache/http/examples/ElementalHttpServer.java
     //         we have to cite a license if we are using this code directly, so we need to add the appropriate citation or modify the code to be very specific to our needs
     static class ListenerThread extends Thread {
diff --git a/server/src/com/cloud/api/response/ApiResponseSerializer.java b/server/src/com/cloud/api/response/ApiResponseSerializer.java
index 85e60baa3d6..c08f5189c90 100644
--- a/server/src/com/cloud/api/response/ApiResponseSerializer.java
+++ b/server/src/com/cloud/api/response/ApiResponseSerializer.java
@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ public class ApiResponseSerializer {
                 }
             } else if (result instanceof SuccessResponse) {
             	sb.append("{ \"success\" : \""+((SuccessResponse)result).getSuccess()+"\"} ");
-            } else {
+            } else if (result instanceof ExceptionResponse) {
+                sb.append("{\"errorcode\" : \""+((ExceptionResponse)result).getErrorCode() + ", \"errortext\" : \""+ ((ExceptionResponse)result).getErrorText() +"\"} ");
+            }else {
                 String jsonStr = gson.toJson(result);
                 if ((jsonStr != null) && !"".equals(jsonStr)) {
                 	jsonStr = unescape(jsonStr);