diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..6f617ebb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
+    echo "This script must be run as root" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Install prefix for config files (e.g. "/usr/local").
+# Leave empty to install into /etc
+CONF_PREFIX=""
+LOG_DIR=/var/log/senlin
+
+
+install -d $LOG_DIR
+
+detect_rabbit() {
+   PKG_CMD="rpm -q"
+   RABBIT_PKG="rabbitmq-server"
+   QPID_PKG="qpid-cpp-server"
+
+    # Detect OS type
+    # Ubuntu has an lsb_release command which allows us to detect if it is Ubuntu
+    if lsb_release -i 2>/dev/null | grep -iq ubuntu
+    then
+        PKG_CMD="dpkg -s"
+        QPID_PKG="qpidd"
+    fi
+    if $PKG_CMD $RABBIT_PKG > /dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        if ! $PKG_CMD $QPID_PKG > /dev/null 2>&1
+        then
+            return 0
+        fi
+    fi
+    return 1
+}
+
+# Determinate is the given option present in the INI file
+# ini_has_option config-file section option
+function ini_has_option() {
+    local file=$1
+    local section=$2
+    local option=$3
+    local line
+    line=$(sed -ne "/^\[$section\]/,/^\[.*\]/ { /^$option[ \t]*=/ p; }" "$file")
+    [ -n "$line" ]
+}
+
+# Set an option in an INI file
+# iniset config-file section option value
+function iniset() {
+    local file=$1
+    local section=$2
+    local option=$3
+    local value=$4
+    if ! grep -q "^\[$section\]" "$file"; then
+        # Add section at the end
+        echo -e "\n[$section]" >>"$file"
+    fi
+    if ! ini_has_option "$file" "$section" "$option"; then
+        # Add it
+        sed -i -e "/^\[$section\]/ a\\
+$option = $value
+" "$file"
+    else
+        # Replace it
+        sed -i -e "/^\[$section\]/,/^\[.*\]/ s|^\($option[ \t]*=[ \t]*\).*$|\1$value|" "$file"
+    fi
+}
+
+basic_configuration() {
+    conf_path=$1
+    if echo $conf_path | grep ".conf$" >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        iniset $target DEFAULT auth_encryption_key `hexdump -n 16 -v -e '/1 "%02x"' /dev/random`
+        iniset $target database connection "mysql://senlin:senlin@localhost/senlin"
+
+        BRIDGE_IP=127.0.0.1
+
+        if detect_rabbit
+        then
+            echo "rabbitmq detected, configuring $conf_path for rabbit" >&2
+            iniset $conf_path DEFAULT rpc_backend kombu
+            iniset $conf_path DEFAULT rabbit_password guest
+        else
+            echo "qpid detected, configuring $conf_path for qpid" >&2
+            iniset $conf_path DEFAULT rpc_backend qpid
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+install_dir() {
+    local dir=$1
+    local prefix=$2
+
+    for fn in $(ls $dir); do
+        f=$dir/$fn
+        target=$prefix/$f
+        if [ $fn = 'senlin.conf.sample' ]; then
+            target=$prefix/$dir/senlin.conf
+        fi
+        if [ -d $f ]; then
+            [ -d $target ] || install -d $target
+            install_dir $f $prefix
+        elif [ -f $target ]; then
+            echo "NOT replacing existing config file $target" >&2
+            diff -u $target $f
+        else
+            echo "Installing $fn in $prefix/$dir" >&2
+            install -m 664 $f $target
+            if [ $fn = 'senlin.conf.sample' ]; then
+                basic_configuration $target
+            fi
+        fi
+    done
+}
+
+install_dir etc $CONF_PREFIX
+
+python setup.py install >/dev/null
+rm -rf build senlin.egg-info