diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index b8914dca6..6f3f96b68 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -24,6 +24,53 @@ Supported Operating Systems:
 * Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
 * CentOS 7
 
+Pre-install steps
+=================
+
+Installing bifrost on RHEL or CentOS requires a few extra pre-install steps.
+
+------------------------------------------
+Enable additional repositories (RHEL only)
+------------------------------------------
+
+The extras and optional yum repositories must be enabled to satisfy bifrost's dependencies. To check::
+
+   sudo yum repolist | grep 'optional\|extras'
+
+To add the repositories::
+
+   sudo yum repolist all | grep 'optional\|extras'
+
+The output will look like this::
+
+  !rhui-REGION-rhel-server-debug-extras/7Server/x86_64        Red H disabled
+  rhui-REGION-rhel-server-debug-optional/7Server/x86_64       Red H disabled
+  rhui-REGION-rhel-server-extras/7Server/x86_64               Red H disabled
+  rhui-REGION-rhel-server-optional/7Server/x86_64             Red H disabled
+  rhui-REGION-rhel-server-source-extras/7Server/x86_64        Red H disabled
+  rhui-REGION-rhel-server-source-optional/7Server/x86_64      Red H disabled
+
+Use the names of the repositories (minus the version and architecture) to enable them::
+
+  sudo yum-config-manager --enable rhui-REGION-rhel-server-optional
+  sudo yum-config-manager --enable rhui-REGION-rhel-server-extras
+
+---------------------------------
+Enable the EPEL repository (RHEL)
+---------------------------------
+
+The Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository contains some of bifrost's dependencies. To enable it, install the `epel-release` package as follows::
+
+  sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
+
+-----------------------------------
+Enable the EPEL repository (CentOS)
+-----------------------------------
+
+To enable EPEL on CentOS, run::
+
+  sudo yum install epel-release
+
 Installation
 ============
 
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_CentOS.yml b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_CentOS.yml
index b989bae90..163aaf6aa 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_CentOS.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_CentOS.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ required_packages:
  - qemu-kvm
  - qemu-kvm-common
  - sgabios
+ - sgabios-bin
  - libvirt
  - libvirt-client
  - libvirt-daemon
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
index 4d3a274ac..ec00eac3c 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-create-vm-nodes/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ required_packages:
  - qemu-kvm-common
  - qemu-system-x86
  - sgabios
+ - sgabios-bin
  - libvirt
  - libvirt-client
  - libvirt-daemon
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_Debian.yml b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_Debian.yml
similarity index 58%
rename from playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_Debian.yml
rename to playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_Debian.yml
index 2b6b9ee47..223216a08 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_Debian.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_Debian.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+---
+init_template: upstart_template.j2
+init_dest_dir: /etc/init/
+init_ext: .conf
+syslinux_tftp_dir: /usr/lib/syslinux/
+ipxe_dir: /usr/lib/ipxe/
+sgabios_dir: /usr/share/qemu/
+nginx_user: www-data
+mysql_service_name: mysql
 required_packages:
   - mysql-server
   - dnsmasq
@@ -6,7 +15,7 @@ required_packages:
   - python-mysqldb
   - python-configparser
   - libffi-dev
-  - libxslt-dev
+  - libxslt1-dev
   - libssl-dev
   - libxml2-dev
   - ipxe
@@ -24,3 +33,5 @@ required_packages:
   - kpartx
   - qemu-utils
   - python-openwsman
+  - amtterm
+  - sgabios
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_RedHat.yml b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
similarity index 53%
rename from playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_RedHat.yml
rename to playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
index 5cde986a7..39633b340 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_packages_RedHat.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/required_defaults_RedHat.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+---
+init_template: systemd_template.j2
+init_dest_dir: /usr/lib/systemd/system/
+init_ext: .service
+syslinux_tftp_dir: /var/lib/tftpboot
+ipxe_dir: /usr/share/ipxe/
+sgabios_dir: /usr/share/sgabios/
+nginx_user: nginx
+mysql_service_name: mariadb
 required_packages:
   - mariadb-server
   - dnsmasq
@@ -22,4 +31,7 @@ required_packages:
   - genisoimage
   - kpartx
   - qemu-kvm-tools
+  - qemu-img
   - openwsman-python
+  - sgabios-bin
+# NOTE(cinerama): amtterm is not currently packaged for RHEL/CentOS 7.
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
index 74a75b843..8e83736bf 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
@@ -13,11 +13,12 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 ---
+
 - name: Include OS-specific packages variables.
   include_vars: "{{ item }}"
   with_first_found:
-    - "../defaults/required_packages_{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml"
-    - "../defaults/required_packages_{{ ansible_os_family }}.yml"
+    - "../defaults/required_defaults_{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml"
+    - "../defaults/required_defaults_{{ ansible_os_family }}.yml"
 - name: "Update Package Cache"
   apt: update_cache=yes
   when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'
@@ -64,8 +65,8 @@
 - name: "Include diskimage-builder installation"
   include: dib_install.yml
   when: create_image_via_dib == true
-- name: "Starting MySQL"
-  service: name=mysql state=started
+- name: "Starting database service"
+  service: name={{ mysql_service_name }} state=started
 - name: "Starting rabbitmq-server"
   service: name=rabbitmq-server state=started
 - name: "RabbitMQ - Testing if hostname is defined firsts in /etc/hosts"
@@ -137,10 +138,13 @@
   command: cp -p /home/ironic/.ssh/id_rsa.pub /home/ironic/.ssh/authorized_keys
   when: testing == true
 - name: "Placing services"
-  template: src=init_template.j2 dest=/etc/init/{{item.service_name}}.conf owner=root group=root
+  template: src={{ init_template }} dest={{ init_dest_dir }}{{item.service_name}}{{ init_ext }} owner=root group=root
   with_items:
     - { service_name: 'ironic-api', username: 'ironic', args: '--config-file /etc/ironic/ironic.conf'}
     - { service_name: 'ironic-conductor', username: 'ironic', args: '--config-file /etc/ironic/ironic.conf'}
+- name: "Reload systemd configuration"
+  command: systemctl daemon-reload
+  when: ansible_os_family == 'RedHat'
 - name: "Start ironic-conductor"
   service: name=ironic-conductor state=started
 - name: "Start ironic-api"
@@ -148,7 +152,7 @@
 - name: "Start ironic-conductor"
   service: name=ironic-conductor state=restarted
 - name: "Start ironic-api"
-  service: name=ironic-api state=reloaded
+  service: name=ironic-api state=restarted
 - name: "Setting up PXE and iPXE folders"
   file: name={{item}} owner=ironic group=ironic state=directory
   with_items:
@@ -160,7 +164,7 @@
 - name: "Disable service tftpd-hpa"
   service: name=tftpd-hpa state=stopped enabled=no
 - name: "Placing pxelinux.0 (pre-14.10)"
-  copy: src=/usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 dest=/tftpboot
+  copy: src={{ syslinux_tftp_dir }}/pxelinux.0 dest=/tftpboot
   when: ansible_distribution_version|version_compare('14.10', '<')
 - name: "Placing pxelinux.0 (>=14.10)"
   copy: src=/usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0 dest=/tftpboot
@@ -170,7 +174,7 @@
 - name: "Place tftp config file"
   copy: src=xinetd.tftp dest=/etc/xinetd.d/tftp
 - name: "Copy iPXE image into place"
-  copy: src=/usr/lib/ipxe/undionly.kpxe dest=/tftpboot/
+  copy: src={{ ipxe_dir }}/undionly.kpxe dest=/tftpboot/
 - name: "Deploy dnsmasq configuration file"
   template: src=dnsmasq.conf.j2 dest=/etc/dnsmasq.conf
   when: "{{include_dhcp_server|bool}}"
@@ -194,8 +198,8 @@
   when: testing == true
 # NOTE(Shrews) Ubuntu packaging+apparmor issue prevents libvirt from loading
 # the ROM from /usr/share/misc.
-- name: "Looking for sgabios in /usr/share/qemu"
-  stat: path=/usr/share/qemu/sgabios.bin
+- name: "Looking for sgabios in {{ sgabios_dir }}"
+  stat: path={{ sgabios_dir }}/sgabios.bin
   register: test_sgabios_qemu
 - name: "Looking for sgabios in /usr/share/misc"
   stat: path=/usr/share/misc/sgabios.bin
@@ -221,7 +225,7 @@
     - xinetd
     - nginx
 - name: "Sending services a force-reload signal"
-  command: /etc/init.d/dnsmasq force-reload
+  service: name=dnsmasq state=restarted
   when: "{{include_dhcp_server|bool}}"
 # Similar logic to below can be utilized to retrieve files
 - name: "Determine if folder exists, else create and populate folder."
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/nginx.conf.j2 b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/nginx.conf.j2
index b2cfdcb5a..e627a84d0 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/nginx.conf.j2
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/nginx.conf.j2
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-user www-data;
+user {{ nginx_user }};
 worker_processes 2;
 pid /run/nginx.pid;
 
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/systemd_template.j2 b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/systemd_template.j2
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f489a20b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/systemd_template.j2
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[Unit]
+Description={{ item.service_name }} service
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/{{ item.service_name }} {{ item.args }}
+User={{ item.username }}
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+Alias={{ item.service_name }}{{ init_ext }}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/init_template.j2 b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/upstart_template.j2
similarity index 100%
rename from playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/init_template.j2
rename to playbooks/roles/ironic-install/templates/upstart_template.j2
diff --git a/scripts/env-setup.sh b/scripts/env-setup.sh
index f6ab4009f..961092dbe 100755
--- a/scripts/env-setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/env-setup.sh
@@ -19,10 +19,16 @@ if [ -x '/usr/bin/apt-get' ]; then
     if ! $(easy_install --version &>/dev/null) ; then
         sudo -H apt-get -y install python-setuptools
     fi
+    if ! $(dpkg -l libpython-dev &>/dev/null); then
+        sudo -H apt-get -y install libpython-dev
+    fi
 elif [ -x '/usr/bin/yum' ]; then
     if ! yum -q list installed python-devel; then
         sudo -H yum -y install python-devel
     fi
+    if ! $(gcc -v &>/dev/null); then
+        sudo -H yum -y install gcc
+    fi
     if ! $(git --version &>/dev/null); then
         sudo -H yum -y install git
     fi