diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyrax.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyrax.nix
index b0fc29d3cc94..0abf54f03fe1 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyrax.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyrax.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { lib, buildPythonPackage, fetchurl, requests2, novaclient, keyring,
-  rackspace-novaclient, six, isPy3k }:
+  rackspace-novaclient, six, isPy3k, pytest, glibcLocales }:
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   name = "pyrax-1.9.8";
 
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   disabled = isPy3k;
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ requests2 novaclient keyring rackspace-novaclient six ];
 
+  LC_ALL = "en_US.UTF-8";
+  buildInputs = [ pytest glibcLocales ];
+
+  checkPhase = ''
+    py.test tests/unit
+  '';
+
   meta = {
     homepage = "https://github.com/rackspace/pyrax";
     license = lib.licenses.asl20;
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 5559b0547a0e..49f5a48476ec 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -21556,7 +21556,9 @@ in {
 
   rackspace-novaclient = callPackage ../development/python-modules/rackspace-novaclient.nix { };
 
-  pyrax = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyrax.nix { };
+  pyrax = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyrax.nix {
+    glibcLocales = pkgs.glibcLocales;
+  };
 
   pyreport = buildPythonPackage (rec {
     name = "pyreport-0.3.4c";