diff --git a/awx/api/views.py b/awx/api/views.py
index c5ec4e6c74..5351af1659 100644
--- a/awx/api/views.py
+++ b/awx/api/views.py
@@ -235,6 +235,19 @@ class ApiV1ConfigView(APIView):
             # FIX: Log
             return Response({"error": "Invalid License"}, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
 
+        # Sanity check: If this license includes system tracking, make
+        # sure that we have a valid MongoDB to point to, and complain if
+        # we do not.
+        if (license_data['features']['system_tracking'] and
+                                    settings.MONGO_HOST == NotImplemented):
+            return Response({
+                'error': 'This license supports system tracking, which '
+                         'requires MongoDB to be installed. Since you are '
+                         'running in an HA environment, you will need to '
+                         'provide a MongoDB instance. Please re-run the '
+                         'installer prior to installing this license.'
+            }, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
+
         # If the license is valid, write it to disk.
         if license_data['valid_key']:
             fh = open(TASK_FILE, "w")
diff --git a/awx/fact/__init__.py b/awx/fact/__init__.py
index 5e6a23a90d..6910d7229f 100644
--- a/awx/fact/__init__.py
+++ b/awx/fact/__init__.py
@@ -14,7 +14,19 @@ logger = logging.getLogger('awx.fact')
 
 # Connect to Mongo
 try:
-    connect(settings.MONGO_DB, tz_aware=settings.USE_TZ)
+    # Sanity check: If we have intentionally invalid settings, then we
+    # know we cannot connect.
+    if settings.MONGO_HOST == NotImplemented:
+        raise ConnectionError
+
+    # Attempt to connect to the MongoDB database.
+    connect(settings.MONGO_DB,
+        host=settings.MONGO_HOST,
+        port=int(settings.MONGO_PORT),
+        username=settings.MONGO_USERNAME,
+        password=settings.MONGO_PASSWORD,
+        tz_aware=settings.USE_TZ,
+    )
     register_key_transform(get_db())
 except ConnectionError:
     logger.warn('Failed to establish connect to MongoDB "%s"' % (settings.MONGO_DB))
diff --git a/awx/settings/defaults.py b/awx/settings/defaults.py
index 52a86ed95c..88bd0fe7b4 100644
--- a/awx/settings/defaults.py
+++ b/awx/settings/defaults.py
@@ -5,8 +5,6 @@ import os
 import sys
 from datetime import timedelta
 
-MONGO_DB = 'system_tracking'
-
 # Update this module's local settings from the global settings module.
 from django.conf import global_settings
 this_module = sys.modules[__name__]
diff --git a/awx/settings/development.py b/awx/settings/development.py
index 71ddb9c078..9375d68182 100644
--- a/awx/settings/development.py
+++ b/awx/settings/development.py
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ from split_settings.tools import optional, include
 # Load default settings.
 from defaults import *  # NOQA
 
+
+MONGO_HOST = '127.0.0.1'
+MONGO_PORT = 27017
+MONGO_USERNAME = None
+MONGO_PASSWORD = None
 MONGO_DB = 'system_tracking_dev'
 
 # Disable capturing all SQL queries when running celeryd in development.