diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/khrem b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/khrem
index 7f5f25d1b..ac212c484 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/khrem
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/bin/khrem
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ my $file = '~/.ssh/known_hosts';
 my $usage = sub {
    	my $exitcode = shift @_;
    	print "Usage: khrem <node>\n";
+    print "       Removes the entries in the .ssh/known_hosts file associated with this node.\n";
 	exit $exitcode;
 };
 
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/postscripts/configbond b/xCAT-SoftLayer/postscripts/configbond
index 93162dc7a..537ed5df4 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/postscripts/configbond
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/postscripts/configbond
@@ -156,7 +156,15 @@ for ($i=0; $i < (scalar @nic_ips) ; $i++ ) {
         close FILE;
 
         # Configure slaves
+        my @output = `ip addr show 2>&1`;       # to check for existance of the device later
         foreach my $dev (@devs) {
+            # as a convenience, make sure the device exists before adding it to the bond
+            if (!grep(m/^\d+:\s+$dev:/, @output)) {
+                system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err  'configbond: not configuring $dev because it does not exist.'");
+                unlink("$dir/ifcfg-$dev");          # in case it was left over in the image we are cloning
+                next;
+            }
+
             system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err  'configbond: slave dev: $dev'");
             if (!open(FILE, ">$dir/ifcfg-$dev")) { system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err 'configbond: cannot open $dir/ifcfg-$dev'"); exit 1; }
             print FILE "DEVICE=$dev\n";
@@ -182,7 +190,9 @@ for ($i=0; $i < (scalar @nic_ips) ; $i++ ) {
         print FILE "STARTMODE=onboot\n";
         print FILE "USERCONTROL=no\n";
         my $devnum = 0;
+        my @output = `ip addr show 2>&1`;       # to check for existance of the device later
         foreach my $dev (@devs) {
+            if (!grep(m/^\d+:\s+$dev:/, @output)) { next; }
             print FILE "BONDING_SLAVE_$devnum=$dev\n";
             $devnum++;
         }
@@ -190,6 +200,13 @@ for ($i=0; $i < (scalar @nic_ips) ; $i++ ) {
 
         # Configure slaves
         foreach my $dev (@devs) {
+            # as a convenience, make sure the device exists before adding it to the bond
+            if (!grep(m/^\d+:\s+$dev:/, @output)) {
+                system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err  'configbond: not configuring $dev because it does not exist.'");
+                unlink("$dir/ifcfg-$dev");          # in case it was left over in the image we are cloning
+                next;
+            }
+            
             system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err  'configbond: slave dev: $dev'");
             if (!open(FILE, ">$dir/ifcfg-$dev")) { system("logger -t xcat -p local4.err 'configbond: cannot open $dir/ifcfg-$dev'"); exit 1; }
             print FILE "BOOTPROTO=none\n";
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork
index e199dc4c5..a5b58d999 100755
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/si-post-install/16all.updatenetwork
@@ -39,8 +39,15 @@ fi
 
 hostname $HOSTNAME
 bond=bond0
+# this is a softlayer assumption that the two devices on the private net will be eth0 and eth2
 if [[ $DEVICE == "eth0" ]]; then
-    $DEVICE2=eth2
+    DEVICE2=eth2
+elif [[ $DEVICE == "eth2" ]]; then
+    DEVICE2=eth0
+fi
+ip addr show|grep -q -E "^[0-9]+:\s+$DEVICE2:"          # make sure it exists on the system
+if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
+    DEVICE2EXISTS="yes"
 fi
 
 device_names=`ifconfig -a | grep -i hwaddr | grep -i 'Ethernet' | grep -v usb| awk '{print $1}'`
@@ -86,16 +93,18 @@ if [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/" ];then
         echo "SLAVE=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
         echo "USERCTL=no" >> $str_cfg_file
 
-        if [[ $DEVICE2 != "" ]]; then
-            # write ifcfg-eth0
-            i="$DEVICE2"
-            str_cfg_file="$dir/ifcfg-$i"
+        i="$DEVICE2"
+        str_cfg_file="$dir/ifcfg-$i"
+        if [[ $DEVICE2EXISTS == "yes" ]]; then
+            # write ifcfg-eth2
             echo "DEVICE=$i" > $str_cfg_file
             echo "BOOTPROTO=none" >> $str_cfg_file
             echo "MASTER=$bond" >> $str_cfg_file
             echo "ONBOOT=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
             echo "SLAVE=yes" >> $str_cfg_file
             echo "USERCTL=no" >> $str_cfg_file
+        else
+            rm -f $str_cfg_file         # in case it was left over in the image that was captured
         fi
 
         # write modprobe alias config
@@ -139,7 +148,7 @@ elif [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network/" ];then
         echo "BROADCAST=$BROADCAST" >> $str_cfg_file
         echo "USERCONTROL=no" >> $str_cfg_file
         echo "BONDING_SLAVE_0=$DEVICE" >> $str_cfg_file
-        if [[ $DEVICE2 != "" ]]; then
+        if [[ $DEVICE2EXISTS == "yes" ]]; then
             echo "BONDING_SLAVE_1=$DEVICE2" >> $str_cfg_file
         fi
 
@@ -149,12 +158,14 @@ elif [ -d "/etc/sysconfig/network/" ];then
         echo "BOOTPROTO=none" > $str_cfg_file
         echo "STARTMODE=hotplug" >> $str_cfg_file
 
-        if [[ $DEVICE2 != "" ]]; then
+        i="$DEVICE2"
+        str_cfg_file="$dir/ifcfg-$i"
+        if [[ $DEVICE2EXISTS == "yes" ]]; then
             # write ifcfg-eth2
-            i="$DEVICE2"
-            str_cfg_file="$dir/ifcfg-$i"
             echo "BOOTPROTO=none" > $str_cfg_file
             echo "STARTMODE=hotplug" >> $str_cfg_file
+        else
+            rm -f $str_cfg_file         # in case it was left over in the image that was captured
         fi
 
         # write modprobe alias config
diff --git a/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec b/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
index 3868e0a09..77aceab5d 100644
--- a/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
+++ b/xCAT-SoftLayer/xCAT-SoftLayer.spec
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ BuildArch: noarch
 Requires: xCAT-server
 #Requires: xCAT-server  >= %{epoch}:%(cat Version|cut -d. -f 1,2)
 
+Requires: perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker perl-CPAN perl-Test-Harness perl-SOAP-Lite
+
 Provides: xCAT-SoftLayer = %{epoch}:%{version}
 
 %description