diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 7aa88f4..a604d12 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2868,9 +2868,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "serde_json"
-version = "1.0.135"
+version = "1.0.138"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "2b0d7ba2887406110130a978386c4e1befb98c674b4fba677954e4db976630d9"
+checksum = "d434192e7da787e94a6ea7e9670b26a036d0ca41e0b7efb2676dd32bae872949"
 dependencies = [
  "itoa",
  "memchr",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fb7f183..d1a0b96 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -46,7 +46,5 @@ slog = "2.7.0"
 slog-async = "2.8.0"
 tokio = { version = "1.43.0", features = ["full"] }
 tracing = "0.1.41"
-tracing-core = "0.1.33"
-tracing-chrome = "0.7.2"
 tracing-slog = { git = "https://github.com/oxidecomputer/tracing-slog", default-features = false }
 uuid = { version = "1", features = [ "serde", "v4" ] }
diff --git a/hostd/src/bin/hostd-controller.rs b/hostd/src/bin/hostd-controller.rs
index 66e5572..003671e 100644
--- a/hostd/src/bin/hostd-controller.rs
+++ b/hostd/src/bin/hostd-controller.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ use anyhow::{anyhow, Result};
 use clap::Parser;
 use dropshot::{ConfigDropshot, ServerBuilder};
 use slog::Drain;
-// use sqlx::PgPool;
 use std::net::SocketAddr;
 use std::str::FromStr;
 use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -60,13 +59,8 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         slog::Logger::root(async_drain, slog::o!())
     };
 
-    // let database_url = args.database_url.unwrap();
-    // dont connect to database pass null
-    // let pg = PgPool::connect(&database_url).await?;
-
-    // sqlx::migrate!().run(&pg).await?;
-
-    let ctx = ControllerContext::new();
+    let dbus = zbus::Connection::system().await.unwrap();
+    let ctx = ControllerContext::new(dbus);
 
     let api = api::api()?;
 
diff --git a/hostd/src/context.rs b/hostd/src/context.rs
index e50d955..8380c40 100644
--- a/hostd/src/context.rs
+++ b/hostd/src/context.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-// use sqlx::postgres::PgPool;
+use zbus::Connection;
 
 pub struct ControllerContext {
-    // pub pg_pool: PgPool,
+    pub dbus: Connection,
 }
 
 impl ControllerContext {
-    pub fn new() -> ControllerContext {
-        ControllerContext {}
+    pub fn new(dbus: Connection) -> ControllerContext {
+        ControllerContext { dbus }
     }
 }
diff --git a/hostd/src/machine.rs b/hostd/src/machine.rs
index eb4c81e..57e4440 100644
--- a/hostd/src/machine.rs
+++ b/hostd/src/machine.rs
@@ -22,12 +22,11 @@ struct MachineInfo {
 pub async fn describe(
     rqctx: RequestContext<Arc<ControllerContext>>,
 ) -> Result<HttpResponseOk<MachineInfo>, HttpError> {
-    let conn = zbus::Connection::system().await.unwrap();
-    let manager = zbus_systemd::hostname1::HostnamedProxy::new(&conn)
+    let hostnamed = zbus_systemd::hostname1::HostnamedProxy::new(&rqctx.context().dbus)
         .await
         .unwrap();
 
-    let machine_id = manager
+    let machine_id = hostnamed
         .machine_id()
         .await
         .unwrap()