diff --git a/lib/cinder b/lib/cinder
index f332633ec1..960c01f604 100644
--- a/lib/cinder
+++ b/lib/cinder
@@ -70,12 +70,11 @@ CINDER_SERVICE_PROTOCOL=${CINDER_SERVICE_PROTOCOL:-$SERVICE_PROTOCOL}
 CINDER_SERVICE_LISTEN_ADDRESS=${CINDER_SERVICE_LISTEN_ADDRESS:-$SERVICE_LISTEN_ADDRESS}
 
 # What type of LVM device should Cinder use for LVM backend
-# Defaults to default, which is thick, the other valid choice
-# is thin, which as the name implies utilizes lvm thin provisioning.
-# Thinly provisioned LVM volumes may be more efficient when using the Cinder
-# image cache, but there are also known race failures with volume snapshots
-# and thinly provisioned LVM volumes, see bug 1642111 for details.
-CINDER_LVM_TYPE=${CINDER_LVM_TYPE:-default}
+# Defaults to auto, which will do thin provisioning if it's a fresh
+# volume group, otherwise it will do thick. The other valid choices are
+# default, which is thick, or thin, which as the name implies utilizes lvm
+# thin provisioning.
+CINDER_LVM_TYPE=${CINDER_LVM_TYPE:-auto}
 
 # Default backends
 # The backend format is type:name where type is one of the supported backend