diff --git a/etc/services-startup-conf/etcd.service b/etc/services-startup-conf/etcd.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fd7a0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/services-startup-conf/etcd.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=etcd key value store
+
+[Service]
+Type=notify
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/etcd
+Restart=on-failure
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+
diff --git a/etc/services-startup-conf/valence.service b/etc/services-startup-conf/valence.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..466d0dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/services-startup-conf/valence.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Valence Server
+
+[Service]
+Environment=PYTHON_HOME=/usr/local/bin/valence
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/valence
+Restart=on-failure
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+
diff --git a/install_valence.sh b/install_valence.sh
index 08d76fa..64dbf7e 100755
--- a/install_valence.sh
+++ b/install_valence.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ sed "s/\${CHUID}/$CURR_USER/"  "$DIR"/etc/services-startup-conf/valence.conf > /
 # Use alternate sed delimiter because path will have /
 sed -i "s#PYHOME#$PYHOME#" /tmp/valence.conf
 mv /tmp/valence.conf /etc/init/valence.conf
+# Valence service file required at this path for starting service using systemctl
+if [ -d "/etc/systemd/system" ]; then
+    cp "$DIR"/etc/services-startup-conf/valence.service /etc/systemd/system/valence.service
+fi
 
 # Generate initial sample config file.
 echo "Generating sample config file" >> $install_log
@@ -41,7 +45,7 @@ if [ ! -d "/etc/valence" ]; then
 fi
 chown "$CURR_USER":"$CURR_USER" /etc/valence
 VALENCE_CONF=/etc/valence/valence.conf
-cp etc/valence.conf.sample /etc/valence/valence.conf
+cp "$DIR"/etc/valence.conf.sample /etc/valence/valence.conf
 
 sudo sed -i "s/#debug\s*=.*/debug=true/" $VALENCE_CONF
 sudo sed -i "s/#log_level\s*=.*/log_level=debug/" $VALENCE_CONF
@@ -69,16 +73,23 @@ curl -L ${DOWNLOAD_URL}/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/
 mkdir -p /var/etcd && tar xzvf /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /var/etcd --strip-components=1
 chown "$CURR_USER":"$CURR_USER" /var/etcd
 mv /var/etcd/etcd /usr/local/bin/etcd && mv /var/etcd/etcdctl /usr/local/bin/etcdctl
+# Etcd service file required at this path for starting service using systemctl
+if [ -d "/etc/systemd/system" ]; then
+    cp "$DIR"/etc/services-startup-conf/etcd.service /etc/systemd/system/etcd.service
+fi
 
 sed "s/\${CHUID}/$CURR_USER/"  "$DIR"/etc/services-startup-conf/etcd.conf > /etc/init/etcd.conf
 
 echo "Starting etcd database" >> $install_log
 service etcd start
+ETCD_STATUS=$?
 sleep 2
 timeout=30
 attempt=1
-until [[ $(service etcd status) = "etcd start/running"* ]]
+until [[ $ETCD_STATUS = 0 ]]
 do
+  service etcd status
+  ETCD_STATUS=$?
   sleep 1
   attempt=$((attempt+1))
   if [[ $attempt -eq timeout ]]