diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index daee09aac7..8b7422abe2 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -118,13 +118,9 @@ pep8: all
 
 .PHONY: python3
 python3: all
-	if [ -x "$(PYTHON3)" ]; then \
-	    PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 $(PYTHON3) -m compileall \
-		$(WHITELIST) \
-		`find . -name '*.py'`; \
-	else \
-	    echo "Warning: skipping python3 syntax check"; \
-	fi
+	PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 $(PYTHON3) -m compileall \
+	    $(WHITELIST) \
+	    `find . -name '*.py'`;
 
 # Note: dependencies ordered by time needed to run them
 check-recursive: gitignore abs_imports python3 pyflakes pep8
diff --git a/automation/build-artifacts.repos.el7 b/automation/build-artifacts.repos.el7
index 8c8de34a4b..2e0a91c8ea 100644
--- a/automation/build-artifacts.repos.el7
+++ b/automation/build-artifacts.repos.el7
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 ovirt-snapshot,http://resources.ovirt.org/pub/ovirt-master-snapshot/rpm/$distro
 ovirt-glusterfs-epel,http://download.gluster.org/pub/gluster/glusterfs/LATEST/EPEL.repo/epel-7/x86_64
+epel,http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7
diff --git a/automation/check-merged.packages.el7 b/automation/check-merged.packages.el7
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..feebc90876
--- /dev/null
+++ b/automation/check-merged.packages.el7
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+autoconf
+automake
+git
+lago
+lago-ovirt
+libguestfs-tools-c
+m2crypto
+make
+mom
+policycoreutils-python
+pyflakes
+python-blivet
+python-coverage
+python-devel
+python-inotify
+python-ioprocess
+python-netaddr
+python-nose
+python-pep8
+python-pthreading
+python-rtslib
+python-six
+python34-nose
+python34-six
+python34
+rpm-build
+sudo
+yum
+yum-utils
+# Needed by lago
+grubby
diff --git a/automation/check-merged.packages b/automation/check-merged.packages.fc23
similarity index 95%
rename from automation/check-merged.packages
rename to automation/check-merged.packages.fc23
index 090b2772da..dd5c7f2880 100644
--- a/automation/check-merged.packages
+++ b/automation/check-merged.packages.fc23
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ automake
 git
 lago
 lago-ovirt
-lago-ovirt-extras
 libguestfs-tools-c
 m2crypto
 make
diff --git a/automation/check-patch.packages.el7 b/automation/check-patch.packages.el7
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..feebc90876
--- /dev/null
+++ b/automation/check-patch.packages.el7
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+autoconf
+automake
+git
+lago
+lago-ovirt
+libguestfs-tools-c
+m2crypto
+make
+mom
+policycoreutils-python
+pyflakes
+python-blivet
+python-coverage
+python-devel
+python-inotify
+python-ioprocess
+python-netaddr
+python-nose
+python-pep8
+python-pthreading
+python-rtslib
+python-six
+python34-nose
+python34-six
+python34
+rpm-build
+sudo
+yum
+yum-utils
+# Needed by lago
+grubby
diff --git a/automation/check-patch.packages b/automation/check-patch.packages.fc23
similarity index 100%
rename from automation/check-patch.packages
rename to automation/check-patch.packages.fc23
diff --git a/automation/check-patch.repos.el7 b/automation/check-patch.repos.el7
index f4d3c472d9..798d070e5e 100644
--- a/automation/check-patch.repos.el7
+++ b/automation/check-patch.repos.el7
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ ovirt-snapshot-static,http://resources.ovirt.org/pub/ovirt-master-snapshot-stati
 ovirt-glusterfs-epel,http://download.gluster.org/pub/gluster/glusterfs/LATEST/EPEL.repo/epel-7/x86_64
 openstack-kilo,https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/openstack/openstack-kilo/el7/
 lago,http://resources.ovirt.org/repos/lago/stable/0.0/rpm/$distro
+epel,http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 5d5652dfbd..f05f2e3808 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -257,7 +257,5 @@ check-local:
 	@echo '*** into your environment.  Do not submit untested code!    ***'
 	$(top_srcdir)/tests/run_tests_local.sh $(args) crossImportsTests.py
 	$(top_srcdir)/tests/run_tests_local.sh $(args) $(run_modules)
-	if [ -x "$(PYTHON3)" ]; then \
-		PYTHON_EXE="$(PYTHON3)" $(top_srcdir)/tests/run_tests_local.sh \
-			$(test_modules_py3); \
-	fi
+	PYTHON_EXE="$(PYTHON3)" $(top_srcdir)/tests/run_tests_local.sh \
+		$(test_modules_py3);
diff --git a/vdsm.spec.in b/vdsm.spec.in
index 29a7179235..ee0588905a 100644
--- a/vdsm.spec.in
+++ b/vdsm.spec.in
@@ -81,7 +81,10 @@ BuildRequires: qemu-img
 BuildRequires: rpm-python
 BuildRequires: python-blivet
 
-%if "@PYTHON3@" != ""
+%if 0%{?rhel}
+BuildRequires: python34-nose
+BuildRequires: python34-six
+%else
 BuildRequires: python3-nose
 BuildRequires: python3-six
 %endif