diff --git a/CONFIG b/CONFIG
index 29c558b37..eba5a8b61 100644
--- a/CONFIG
+++ b/CONFIG
@@ -204,3 +204,6 @@ CONFIG_HAVE_LIBBSD=n
 
 # Path to IPSEC_MB used by DPDK
 CONFIG_IPSEC_MB_DIR=
+
+# Generate Storage Management Agent's protobuf interface
+CONFIG_SMA=n
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 0ca5c9c4c..93393baaf 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ function usage() {
 	echo "                           Path to clang_rt.fuzzer_no_main library required."
 	echo "                           Requires setting CC and CXX to clang."
 	echo "                           (Typically /usr/lib/llvm-VER/lib/clang/VER/lib/linux/libclang_rt.fuzzer_no_main-ARCH.a)"
+	echo " --with-sma                Generate Storage Management Agent's protobuf interface"
+	echo " --without-sma             No path required."
 	echo ""
 	echo "Environment variables:"
 	echo ""
@@ -623,6 +625,12 @@ for i in "$@"; do
 			CONFIG[FUZZER]=n
 			CONFIG[FUZZER_LIB]=
 			;;
+		--with-sma)
+			CONFIG[SMA]=y
+			;;
+		--without-sma)
+			CONFIG[SMA]=n
+			;;
 		--)
 			break
 			;;
@@ -1109,6 +1117,14 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	cd $rootdir
 fi
 
+if [[ "${CONFIG[SMA]}" = "y" ]]; then
+	if ! python3 -c 'import grpc; import grpc_tools' 2> /dev/null; then
+		echo "--with-sma requires grpcio and grpcio-tools python packages."
+		echo "Please install then re-run this script."
+		exit 1
+	fi
+fi
+
 # For ARM Neoverse-N1 platform, debug build needs gcc version newer than 8.4
 if [[ "${CONFIG[DEBUG]}" = "y" && $arch = aarch64* && "$CC_TYPE" = "gcc" ]]; then
 	GCC_VERSION=$($CC -dumpfullversion)
diff --git a/python/Makefile b/python/Makefile
index 9f99d5fd6..08990047e 100644
--- a/python/Makefile
+++ b/python/Makefile
@@ -40,8 +40,7 @@ $(1)/%_pb2.py $(1)/%_pb2_grpc.py: $(1)/%.proto
 		--grpc_python_out=$(1) --proto_path=$(1) $$^
 endef
 
-# Check for the required modules here until there's a configure option for SMA
-ifeq ($(shell python3 -c 'import grpc; import grpc_tools' && echo 0),0)
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_SMA),y)
 protodirs = spdk/sma/proto
 protodefs = $(foreach protodir,$(protodirs),$(wildcard $(protodir)/*.proto))
 protopy = $(foreach proto,$(basename $(protodefs)),$(addprefix $(proto),_pb2.py _pb2_grpc.py))
diff --git a/scripts/pkgdep/arch.sh b/scripts/pkgdep/arch.sh
index 46d435159..252302e2b 100755
--- a/scripts/pkgdep/arch.sh
+++ b/scripts/pkgdep/arch.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ pip install configshell_fb
 pip install pyelftools
 pip install ijson
 pip install python-magic
+pip install grpcio
+pip install grpcio-tools
 # Additional dependencies for DPDK
 pacman -Sy --needed --noconfirm numactl nasm
 # Additional dependencies for ISA-L used in compression
diff --git a/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh b/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
index 7c7ba8ccf..62550194c 100755
--- a/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
+++ b/scripts/pkgdep/debian.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ fi
 pip3 install pyelftools
 pip3 install ijson
 pip3 install python-magic
+pip3 install grpcio
+pip3 install grpcio-tools
 # Additional dependencies for SPDK CLI - not available on older Ubuntus
 apt-get install -y python3-configshell-fb python3-pexpect || echo \
 	"Note: Some SPDK CLI dependencies could not be installed."
diff --git a/scripts/pkgdep/rhel.sh b/scripts/pkgdep/rhel.sh
index 2a5c76c47..dbd2ac8e9 100755
--- a/scripts/pkgdep/rhel.sh
+++ b/scripts/pkgdep/rhel.sh
@@ -103,6 +103,8 @@ pip3 install meson
 pip3 install pyelftools
 pip3 install ijson
 pip3 install python-magic
+pip3 install grpcio
+pip3 install grpcio-tools
 
 # Additional dependencies for SPDK CLI - not available in rhel and centos
 if ! echo "$ID $VERSION_ID" | grep -E -q 'rhel 7|centos 7'; then