diff --git a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
index 3a0df6a8c..48b0e3818 100644
--- a/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
+++ b/perl-xCAT/xCAT/Schema.pm
@@ -595,6 +595,7 @@ site => {
    "  SNsyncfiledir:\tThe directory on the Service Node, where xdcp will copy the files from the MN that will eventually be copied to the compute nodes. Default is /var/xcat/syncfiles.\n\n".
    "  snmpc:\tThe snmp community string that xcat should use when communicating with the switches.\n\n".
    "  svloglocal:\tsyslog on the service node does not get forwarded to the mgmt node - default is 0.\n\n".
+   "  useNmapfromMN:\tWhen set to yes, nodestat command should obtain the node status using nmap (if available) from the management node instead of the service node. This will improve the performance in a flat network. Default is no.\n\n".
    "  xcatconfdir:\t(default /etc/xcat)\n\n".
    "  xcatdport:\tThe port used by the xcatd daemon for client/server communication. Default is 3001.\n\n".
    "  xcatiport:\tThe port used by xcatd to receive install status updates from nodes. Default is 3002.\n\n".
diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/nodestat.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/nodestat.pm
index 83779d546..2d0971840 100644
--- a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/nodestat.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/nodestat.pm
@@ -85,8 +85,18 @@ sub preprocess_request
     my $service  = "xcat";
     my @requests;
     if ($nodes){ 
-      if (-x '/usr/bin/nmap' or -x '/usr/local/bin/nmap') { 
-        return [$req]; #For now, do not distribute, nodestat seems to lose accuracy and slow down distributed, if using nmap
+      if (-x '/usr/bin/nmap' or -x '/usr/local/bin/nmap') {
+	  my $usenmapfrommn=0;
+	  my $sitetab = xCAT::Table->new('site');
+	  if ($sitetab) {
+	      (my $ref) = $sitetab->getAttribs({key => 'useNmapfromMN'}, 'value');
+	      if ($ref) {
+		  if ($ref->{value} =~ /1|yes|YES|Y|y/) { $usenmapfrommn=1; }
+	      }
+	  }
+	  if ($usenmapfrommn) {       
+	      return [$req]; #do not distribute, nodestat seems to lose accuracy and slow down distributed, if using nmap
+	  }
       }
       # find service nodes for requested nodes
       # build an individual request for each service node
diff --git a/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatconfig b/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatconfig
index 60468d27d..16cdf818c 100644
--- a/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatconfig
+++ b/xCAT-server/sbin/xcatconfig
@@ -865,6 +865,8 @@ sub initDB
         $chtabcmds .= "$::XCATROOT/sbin/chtab key=xcatconfdir site.value=$confdir;";
         $chtabcmds .=
           "$::XCATROOT/sbin/chtab key=timezone site.value=$timezone;";
+        $chtabcmds .=
+          "$::XCATROOT/sbin/chtab key=useNmapfromMN site.value=no;";
 
         if ($::osname eq 'AIX')
         {