diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 3af93b9a..5fd9c0cf 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -31,3 +31,4 @@ KeyError: ''
  a titlebar
 -audit log did not show confetty activity for starting console
 -read exclusive and full exclusive console access modes
+-invalid attributes at create time come out as 500
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/confluent_server/confluent/core.py b/confluent_server/confluent/core.py
index 8a057912..da12f4ed 100644
--- a/confluent_server/confluent/core.py
+++ b/confluent_server/confluent/core.py
@@ -233,7 +233,10 @@ def create_group(inputdata, configmanager):
         attribmap = {groupname: inputdata}
     except KeyError:
         raise exc.InvalidArgumentException()
-    configmanager.add_group_attributes(attribmap)
+    try:
+        configmanager.add_group_attributes(attribmap)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        raise exc.InvalidArgumentException(str(e))
 
 
 def create_node(inputdata, configmanager):
@@ -242,8 +245,11 @@ def create_node(inputdata, configmanager):
         del inputdata['name']
         attribmap = {nodename: inputdata}
     except KeyError:
-        raise exc.InvalidArgumentException()
-    configmanager.add_node_attributes(attribmap)
+        raise exc.InvalidArgumentException('name not specified')
+    try:
+        configmanager.add_node_attributes(attribmap)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        raise exc.InvalidArgumentException(str(e))
 
 
 def enumerate_collections(collections):