diff --git a/ceilometer/openstack/common/setup.py b/ceilometer/openstack/common/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..17ca73d94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ceilometer/openstack/common/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# vim: tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+
+# Copyright 2011 OpenStack LLC.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+"""
+Utilities with minimum-depends for use in setup.py
+"""
+
+import datetime
+import os
+import re
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+from setuptools.command import sdist
+
+
+# Get requirements from the first file that exists
+def get_reqs_from_files(requirements_files):
+    for requirements_file in requirements_files:
+        if os.path.exists(requirements_file):
+            return open(requirements_file, 'r').read().split('\n')
+    return []
+
+
+def parse_requirements(requirements_files=['requirements.txt',
+                                           'tools/pip-requires']):
+    requirements = []
+    for line in get_reqs_from_files(requirements_files):
+        # For the requirements list, we need to inject only the portion
+        # after egg= so that distutils knows the package it's looking for
+        # such as:
+        # -e git://github.com/openstack/nova/master#egg=nova
+        if re.match(r'\s*-e\s+', line):
+            requirements.append(re.sub(r'\s*-e\s+.*#egg=(.*)$', r'\1',
+                                line))
+        # such as:
+        # http://github.com/openstack/nova/zipball/master#egg=nova
+        elif re.match(r'\s*https?:', line):
+            requirements.append(re.sub(r'\s*https?:.*#egg=(.*)$', r'\1',
+                                line))
+        # -f lines are for index locations, and don't get used here
+        elif re.match(r'\s*-f\s+', line):
+            pass
+        # argparse is part of the standard library starting with 2.7
+        # adding it to the requirements list screws distro installs
+        elif line == 'argparse' and sys.version_info >= (2, 7):
+            pass
+        else:
+            requirements.append(line)
+
+    return requirements
+
+
+def parse_dependency_links(requirements_files=['requirements.txt',
+                                               'tools/pip-requires']):
+    dependency_links = []
+    # dependency_links inject alternate locations to find packages listed
+    # in requirements
+    for line in get_reqs_from_files(requirements_files):
+        # skip comments and blank lines
+        if re.match(r'(\s*#)|(\s*$)', line):
+            continue
+        # lines with -e or -f need the whole line, minus the flag
+        if re.match(r'\s*-[ef]\s+', line):
+            dependency_links.append(re.sub(r'\s*-[ef]\s+', '', line))
+        # lines that are only urls can go in unmolested
+        elif re.match(r'\s*https?:', line):
+            dependency_links.append(line)
+    return dependency_links
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 3c1e89a75..2143e8682 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ import textwrap
 
 import setuptools
 
+from ceilometer.openstack.common import setup
+
+requires = setup.parse_requirements()
+depend_links = setup.parse_dependency_links()
+
 setuptools.setup(
     name='ceilometer',
     version='0',
@@ -37,6 +42,8 @@ setuptools.setup(
              'bin/ceilometer-api',
              'bin/ceilometer-collector'],
     py_modules=[],
+    install_requires=requires,
+    dependency_links=depend_links,
     entry_points=textwrap.dedent("""
     [ceilometer.collector]
     instance = ceilometer.compute.notifications:Instance
diff --git a/tools/pip-requires b/tools/pip-requires
index cd7024cb8..6027dd620 100644
--- a/tools/pip-requires
+++ b/tools/pip-requires
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-http://tarballs.openstack.org/nova/nova-master.tar.gz
-http://tarballs.openstack.org/glance/glance-master.tar.gz
 webob
 kombu
 iso8601
@@ -8,6 +6,6 @@ netaddr
 argparse
 sqlalchemy
 eventlet
-anyjson==0.3.1
+anyjson>=0.3.1
 Flask==0.9
 stevedore>=0.4
diff --git a/tools/pip-requires_essex b/tools/pip-requires_essex
deleted file mode 100644
index 656aebbb7..000000000
--- a/tools/pip-requires_essex
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-https://github.com/openstack/openstack-common/zipball/master#egg=openstack.common
-https://github.com/openstack/nova/zipball/2012.1.1#egg=nova
-https://github.com/openstack/python-novaclient/zipball/2012.1#egg=novaclient
-webob
-kombu
-iso8601
-lockfile
-netaddr
-argparse
-sqlalchemy
-anyjson==0.3.1
-Flask==0.9
-stevedore>=0.4
diff --git a/tools/test-requires b/tools/test-requires
index 2f438120b..c0e0106f1 100644
--- a/tools/test-requires
+++ b/tools/test-requires
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ coverage
 pep8>=1.0
 mock
 mox
-glance>=2011.3.1
 python-glanceclient
 # NOTE(dhellmann): Ming is necessary to provide the Mongo-in-memory
 # implementation of MongoDB. The original source for Ming is at
@@ -13,4 +12,6 @@ python-glanceclient
 # github to make it easier to install, then ended up making some
 # changes to it so it would be compatible with PyMongo's API.
 https://github.com/dreamhost/Ming/zipball/master#egg=Ming
+http://tarballs.openstack.org/nova/nova-master.tar.gz
+http://tarballs.openstack.org/glance/glance-master.tar.gz
 setuptools-git>=0.4
diff --git a/tools/test-requires_essex b/tools/test-requires_essex
deleted file mode 100644
index 8274f9a63..000000000
--- a/tools/test-requires_essex
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-carrot
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 260218305..4e286b9a1 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 [tox]
-envlist = py26,py27,pep8,py26-essex,py27-essex
+envlist = py26,py27,pep8
 
 [testenv]
-deps = -r{toxinidir}/tools/pip-requires
-       -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires
+deps = -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires
+       -r{toxinidir}/tools/pip-requires
 setenv = VIRTUAL_ENV={envdir}
          NOSE_WITH_OPENSTACK=1
          NOSE_OPENSTACK_COLOR=1
@@ -19,13 +19,3 @@ commands = {toxinidir}/run_tests.sh --no-path-adjustment --with-coverage --cover
 [testenv:pep8]
 deps = pep8==1.1
 commands = pep8 --repeat --show-source ceilometer setup.py bin/ceilometer-agent-central bin/ceilometer-agent-compute bin/ceilometer-collector bin/ceilometer-api tests
-
-[testenv:py26-essex]
-deps = -r{toxinidir}/tools/pip-requires_essex
-       -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires
-       -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires_essex
-
-[testenv:py27-essex]
-deps = -r{toxinidir}/tools/pip-requires_essex
-       -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires
-       -r{toxinidir}/tools/test-requires_essex