diff --git a/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-detect-pythonpath b/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-detect-pythonpath
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e20baa26d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-detect-pythonpath
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+# The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+# (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+# the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+
+# Override python3 in the file below if you want to disable
+# automatic python3 detection
+BIGTOP_DEFAULTS_DIR=${BIGTOP_DEFAULTS_DIR-/etc/default}
+[ -n "${BIGTOP_DEFAULTS_DIR}" -a -r ${BIGTOP_DEFAULTS_DIR}/bigtop-utils ] && . ${BIGTOP_DEFAULTS_DIR}/bigtop-utils
+
+PYTHON3_PATH_CANDIDATES=(
+    '/usr/bin/python3'
+    '/opt/python3/bin/python3'
+    '/usr/lib/python3/bin/python3'
+)
+
+# attempt to find python3
+if [ -z "${PYTHON3_PATH}" ]; then
+  for candidate in ${PYTHON3_PATH_CANDIDATES[@]} ; do
+    if [ -e ${candidate} ]; then
+      export PYTHON3_PATH=${candidate}
+      break
+    fi
+  done
+fi
diff --git a/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-utils.default b/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-utils.default
index 53118481be..caedf20926 100644
--- a/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-utils.default
+++ b/bigtop-packages/src/common/bigtop-utils/bigtop-utils.default
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
 # Override JAVA_HOME detection for all bigtop packages
 # export JAVA_HOME
 
+# Override PYTHON3_PATH detection for all bigtop packages
+# export PYTHON3_PATH
+
 # Provide a colon-delimited list of directories to search for native Java libraries (e.g. libjvm.so)
 # export JAVA_NATIVE_PATH
 
diff --git a/bigtop-packages/src/deb/bigtop-utils/rules b/bigtop-packages/src/deb/bigtop-utils/rules
index e55e985fa9..75d1058a24 100644
--- a/bigtop-packages/src/deb/bigtop-utils/rules
+++ b/bigtop-packages/src/deb/bigtop-utils/rules
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ override_dh_auto_install:
 	install -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-detect-javahome debian/bigtop-utils/usr/lib/bigtop-utils/
 	install -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-detect-javalibs debian/bigtop-utils/usr/lib/bigtop-utils/
 	install -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-detect-classpath debian/bigtop-utils/usr/lib/bigtop-utils/
+	install -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-detect-pythonpath debian/bigtop-utils/usr/lib/bigtop-utils/
 	install -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-monitor-service debian/bigtop-utils/usr/lib/bigtop-utils/
 	install -d -p -m 755 debian/bigtop-utils/etc/default
 	install -p -m 644 debian/bigtop-utils.default debian/bigtop-utils/etc/default/bigtop-utils
diff --git a/bigtop-packages/src/rpm/bigtop-utils/SPECS/bigtop-utils.spec b/bigtop-packages/src/rpm/bigtop-utils/SPECS/bigtop-utils.spec
index 9a89091f86..0417eabe5b 100644
--- a/bigtop-packages/src/rpm/bigtop-utils/SPECS/bigtop-utils.spec
+++ b/bigtop-packages/src/rpm/bigtop-utils/SPECS/bigtop-utils.spec
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Source2:    bigtop-utils.default
 Source3:    bigtop-detect-javalibs
 Source4:    bigtop-detect-classpath
 Source5:    bigtop-monitor-service
+Source6:    bigtop-detect-pythonpath
 Requires:   bash
 
 # "which" command is needed for a lot of projects.
@@ -54,6 +55,7 @@ install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE2} .
 install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE3} .
 install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE4} .
 install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE5} .
+install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE6} .
 
 %build
 
@@ -66,6 +68,7 @@ install -p -m 755 %{SOURCE0} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{lib_dir}/
 install -p -m 755 %{SOURCE3} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{lib_dir}/
 install -p -m 755 %{SOURCE4} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{lib_dir}/
 install -p -m 755 %{SOURCE5} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{lib_dir}/
+install -p -m 755 %{SOURCE6} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{lib_dir}/
 install -p -m 644 %{SOURCE2} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/etc/default/bigtop-utils
 
 %clean