diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Utils.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Utils.pm
index ca041f245..c1953da95 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Utils.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Utils.pm
@@ -528,12 +528,9 @@ sub isLinux
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 sub Version
 {
-
-    #The following tag tells the build script where to append build info
     my $version = shift;
     $version = xCAT::Version->Version();
     return $version;
-
 }
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Version.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Version.pm
index 787f4139c..99fe9c4f2 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Version.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Version.pm
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ use strict;
 sub Version
 {
 
-    #The following tag tells the build script where to append build info
+    #The following tags tells the build script where to append build info
     my $version = shift;
     if ($version eq 'short')
     {
diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/hpoa.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/hpoa.pm
index 817eaaca4..12f9f266a 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/hpoa.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/hpoa.pm
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ package xCAT::hpoa;
 
 use strict;
 
-use SOAP::Lite;
+#use SOAP::Lite;	# hpblade.pm requires SOAP::Lite before requiring hpoa.pm, so we can check for SOAP::Lite dynamically
 use vars qw(@ISA);
 @ISA = qw(SOAP::Lite);
 
diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/AAsn.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/AAsn.pm
index 0782a11f3..3224189f7 100644
--- a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/AAsn.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/AAsn.pm
@@ -271,10 +271,9 @@ sub init_plugin
         # $rc = &setup_NTPmn();  # setup NTP on the Management Node
         if (xCAT::Utils->isLinux())
         {
-            print "\n"
-              ; # make OK prints look better.  Only need to do this for the 1st service.
             my @tmp = xCAT::TableUtils->get_site_attribute("vsftp");   
 		    if ($tmp[0] && ($tmp[0] !~ /0|NO|No|no|N|n/ )) {         
+                print "\n";    # make OK prints look better.  Only need to do this for the 1st service.
                 $rc = &setup_FTP();    # setup FTP
             }
             #enable the tftp-hpa for MN
diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/hpblade.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/hpblade.pm
index 4b9c41180..2f7b2c7e5 100755
--- a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/hpblade.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/hpblade.pm
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ use Net::SSLeay qw(die_now die_if_ssl_error);
 use Data::Dumper;
 use POSIX "WNOHANG";
 use Getopt::Long;
-use xCAT::hpoa;
+#use xCAT::hpoa;	# require this dynamically below instead
 
 sub handled_commands {
 	return {
@@ -326,6 +326,14 @@ sub preprocess_request {
 		$request = {};
 		return;
 	}   
+
+	# require SOAP::Lite for hpoa.pm so we can do it dynamically
+	my $soapsupport = eval { require SOAP::Lite; };
+	unless ($soapsupport) { #Still no SOAP::Lite module
+      $callback->({error=>"SOAP::Lite perl module missing.  Install perl-SOAP-Lite before running HP blade commands.",errorcode=>[42]});
+      return [];
+	}
+	require xCAT::hpoa;
 		
 	#get the MMs for the nodes for the nodes in order to figure out which service nodes to send the requests to
 	my $mptab = xCAT::Table->new("mp");
@@ -600,6 +608,15 @@ sub process_request {
 	unless ($command) {
 		return; #Empty request
 	}
+
+	# require SOAP::Lite for hpoa.pm so we can do it dynamically
+	my $soapsupport = eval { require SOAP::Lite; };
+	unless ($soapsupport) { #Still no SOAP::Lite module
+      $callback->({error=>"SOAP::Lite perl module missing.  Install perl-SOAP-Lite before running HP blade commands.",errorcode=>[42]});
+      return [];
+	}
+	require xCAT::hpoa;
+
 	if (ref($request->{arg})) {
 		@exargs = @{$request->{arg}};
 	} else {
diff --git a/xCAT-server/xCAT-wsapi/xcatws.cgi b/xCAT-server/xCAT-wsapi/xcatws.cgi
index e394a8973..f50659f1b 100755
--- a/xCAT-server/xCAT-wsapi/xcatws.cgi
+++ b/xCAT-server/xCAT-wsapi/xcatws.cgi
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl
 use strict;
 use CGI qw/:standard/;
-use JSON;
+#use JSON;		# require this dynamically later on so that installations that do not use xcatws.cgi do not need perl-JSON
 use Data::Dumper;
 
 #added the line:
@@ -103,6 +103,15 @@ if ($queryhash{'format'}) {
         addPageContent("The format '$format' is not valid");
         sendResponseMsg($STATUS_BAD_REQUEST);
     }
+
+	if ($format eq 'json') {
+		# require JSON dynamically and let them know if it is not installed
+		my $jsoninstalled = eval { require JSON; };
+		unless ($jsoninstalled) {
+		   addPageContent($q->p("JSON perl module missing.  Install perl-JSON before using the xCAT REST web services API."));
+		   sendResponseMsg($STATUS_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE);
+		}
+	}
 }
 
 my $XCAT_PATH = '/opt/xcat/bin';
diff --git a/xCAT/xCAT.spec b/xCAT/xCAT.spec
index 155a0b570..058a13a1d 100644
--- a/xCAT/xCAT.spec
+++ b/xCAT/xCAT.spec
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ Requires: xCAT-server xCAT-client perl-DBD-SQLite
 Requires: httpd nfs-utils nmap bind perl-XML-Parser perl(CGI)
 # On RHEL this pulls in dhcp, on SLES it pulls in dhcp-server
 Requires: /usr/sbin/dhcpd
+# On RHEL this pulls in openssh-server, on SLES it pulls in openssh
+Requires: /usr/bin/ssh
 %ifnarch s390x
 Requires: /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
 # yaboot-xcat is pulled in so any MN can manage ppc nodes