diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 5ea9925bae1634f61f19e90136ad0d859b5a9189..88f1369df5ddb9d90473b7d3af3fa7ea20f6172a 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -1265,6 +1265,7 @@ lib/_autoconf.py: Makefile | stamp-directories
 	  echo "ENABLE_CONFD = $(ENABLE_CONFD)"; \
 	  echo "XEN_CMD = '$(XEN_CMD)'"; \
 	  echo "ENABLE_SPLIT_QUERY = $(ENABLE_SPLIT_QUERY)"; \
+	  echo "ENABLE_REMOTE_COMMANDS = $(ENABLE_REMOTE_COMMANDS)"; \
 	} > $@
 
 lib/_vcsversion.py: Makefile vcs-version | stamp-directories
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 1cc62d5df13336be62f788ab54e326f50dec934d..e6ff1018458ebd06e0fcca7ebf487ee6ade97d16 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -310,6 +310,19 @@ then
 fi
 AC_SUBST(SYSLOG_USAGE, $SYSLOG)
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([remote-commands],
+  [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-remote-commands],
+                  m4_normalize([enable remote commands in the node daemon
+                                (default: disabled)]))],
+  [[if test "$enableval" = no; then
+      enable_remote_commands=False
+    else
+      enable_remote_commands=True
+    fi
+  ]],
+  [enable_remote_commands=False])
+AC_SUBST(ENABLE_REMOTE_COMMANDS, $enable_remote_commands)
+
 # --with-disk-separator=...
 AC_ARG_WITH([disk-separator],
   [AS_HELP_STRING([--with-disk-separator=STRING],
diff --git a/lib/constants.py b/lib/constants.py
index 5bcccd9b44feb6d9bbc7fce8622e429fd5393b2e..5f2b24a49d45dd837fdbbd4dad7af1c88d64b05a 100644
--- a/lib/constants.py
+++ b/lib/constants.py
@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ ENABLE_FILE_STORAGE = _autoconf.ENABLE_FILE_STORAGE
 ENABLE_SHARED_FILE_STORAGE = _autoconf.ENABLE_SHARED_FILE_STORAGE
 ENABLE_CONFD = _autoconf.ENABLE_CONFD
 ENABLE_SPLIT_QUERY = _autoconf.ENABLE_SPLIT_QUERY
+ENABLE_REMOTE_COMMANDS = _autoconf.ENABLE_REMOTE_COMMANDS
 
 NODED = "ganeti-noded"
 CONFD = "ganeti-confd"