diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 993427376..32ee54913 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -91,8 +91,6 @@ function usage() {
 	echo "                           If argument is file, interpret it as compiled OCF lib"
 	echo "                           If no argument is specified, OCF git submodule is used by default"
 	echo "                           example: /usr/src/ocf/"
-	echo " --with-isal               Build with ISA-L. Enabled by default on x86 and aarch64 architectures."
-	echo " --without-isal            No path required."
 	echo " --with-uring[=DIR]        Build I/O uring bdev or socket module."
 	echo " --without-uring           If an argument is provided, it is considered a directory containing"
 	echo "                           liburing.a and io_uring.h. Otherwise the regular system paths will"
@@ -166,15 +164,6 @@ if [[ $arch == *mingw* ]] || [[ $arch == *windows* ]]; then
 	sys_name=Windows
 fi
 
-# Sanitize default configuration. All parameters set by user explicit should fail
-# Force no ISA-L if non-x86 or non-aarch64 architecture
-if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
-	if [[ $arch != x86_64* ]] && [[ $arch != aarch64* ]]; then
-		CONFIG[ISAL]=n
-		echo "Notice: ISA-L not supported for ${arch}. Turning off default feature."
-	fi
-fi
-
 if [[ $sys_name != "Linux" ]]; then
 	# Vhost, rte_vhost library and virtio are only supported on Linux.
 	CONFIG[VHOST]="n"
@@ -182,22 +171,6 @@ if [[ $sys_name != "Linux" ]]; then
 	echo "Notice: Vhost, rte_vhost library and virtio are only supported on Linux. Turning off default feature."
 fi
 
-#check nasm only on x86
-if [[ $arch == x86_64* ]]; then
-	ver=$(nasm -v 2> /dev/null | awk '{print $3}' | awk -Fr '{print $1}')
-	if lt "$ver" 2.14; then
-		# ISA-L, compression & crypto require NASM version 2.14 or newer.
-		CONFIG[ISAL]=n
-		CONFIG[CRYPTO]=n
-		CONFIG[IPSEC_MB]=n
-		CONFIG[REDUCE]=n
-		HAVE_NASM=n
-		echo "Notice: ISA-L, compression & crypto require NASM version 2.14 or newer. Turning off default ISA-L and crypto features."
-	else
-		HAVE_NASM=y
-	fi
-fi
-
 function check_dir() {
 	arg="$1"
 	dir="${arg#*=}"
@@ -597,12 +570,6 @@ for i in "$@"; do
 			CONFIG[OCF]=n
 			CONFIG[OCF_PATH]=
 			;;
-		--with-isal)
-			CONFIG[ISAL]=y
-			;;
-		--without-isal)
-			CONFIG[ISAL]=n
-			;;
 		--with-uring=*)
 			CONFIG[URING]=y
 			CONFIG[URING_PATH]=$(readlink -f ${i#*=})
@@ -724,19 +691,6 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[IDXD]}" = "y" ]]; then
 
 fi
 
-# Detect architecture and force no ISA-L if non-x86 or non-aarch64 architecture
-if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
-	if [[ $arch != x86_64* ]] && [[ $arch != aarch64* ]]; then
-		echo "ERROR: ISA-L cannot be used due to CPU incompatibility."
-		exit 1
-	fi
-fi
-
-if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "n" ]] && [[ "${CONFIG[REDUCE]}" = "y" ]]; then
-	echo "ERROR Conflicting options: --with-reduce is not compatible with --without-isal."
-	exit 1
-fi
-
 if [ -z "${CONFIG[ENV]}" ]; then
 	CONFIG[ENV]=$rootdir/lib/env_dpdk
 	echo "Using default SPDK env in ${CONFIG[ENV]}"
@@ -904,14 +858,6 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[FC]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	fi
 fi
 
-if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]] || [[ "${CONFIG[CRYPTO]}" = "y" ]]; then
-	if [[ "${HAVE_NASM}" = "n" ]] && [[ $arch == x86_64* ]]; then
-		echo "ERROR: ISA-L, compression & crypto require NASM version 2.14 or newer."
-		echo "Please install or upgrade them re-run this script."
-		exit 1
-	fi
-fi
-
 if [[ "${CONFIG[PMDK]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	if ! echo -e '#include <libpmemblk.h>\nint main(void) { return 0; }\n' \
 		| "${BUILD_CMD[@]}" -lpmemblk - 2> /dev/null; then
@@ -1169,13 +1115,33 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[FUZZER]}" = "y" && "$CC_TYPE" != "clang" ]]; then
 	exit 1
 fi
 
-if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
+if [[ $arch == x86_64* ]] || [[ $arch == aarch64* ]]; then
+	CONFIG[ISAL]=y
+	# make sure the submodule is initialized
 	if [ ! -f "$rootdir"/isa-l/autogen.sh ]; then
-		echo "ISA-L was not found; To install ISA-L run:"
+		echo "ISA-L is required but was not found, please init the submodule with:"
 		echo "  git submodule update --init"
+		echo "and then re-run this script."
 		exit 1
 	fi
+	# for x86 only, check the nasm version for ISA-L and IPSEC
+	if [[ $arch == x86_64* ]]; then
+		ver=$(nasm -v 2> /dev/null | awk '{print $3}' | awk -Fr '{print $1}')
+		if lt "$ver" 2.14; then
+			CONFIG[ISAL]=n
+			# IPSEC has nasm requirement and DPDK crypto relies on IPSEC
+			CONFIG[IPSEC_MB]=n
+			echo "WARNING: ISA-L & DPDK crypto cannot be used as nasm ver must be 2.14 or newer."
+		fi
+	fi
+else
+	# for PPC
+	CONFIG[ISAL]=n
+	echo "WARNING: ISA-L cannot be used due to architecture incompatibility."
+fi
 
+# now either configure ISA-L or disable unavailable features
+if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	cd $rootdir/isa-l
 	ISAL_LOG=$rootdir/isa-l/spdk-isal.log
 	if [[ -n "${CONFIG[CROSS_PREFIX]}" ]]; then
@@ -1188,6 +1154,11 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[ISAL]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	./configure CFLAGS="-fPIC -g -O2" "${ISAL_OPTS[@]}" --enable-shared=no >> $ISAL_LOG 2>&1
 	echo "done."
 	cd $rootdir
+else
+	echo "Without ISA-L, there is no software support for crypto or compression,"
+	echo "so these features will be disabled."
+	CONFIG[CRYPTO]=n
+	CONFIG[REDUCE]=n
 fi
 
 if [[ "${CONFIG[SMA]}" = "y" ]]; then
diff --git a/lib/accel/Makefile b/lib/accel/Makefile
index 7e92c6aab..a0adf84d7 100644
--- a/lib/accel/Makefile
+++ b/lib/accel/Makefile
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ SO_SUFFIX := $(SO_VER).$(SO_MINOR)
 LIBNAME = accel
 C_SRCS = accel.c accel_rpc.c accel_sw.c
 
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_ISAL), y)
+LOCAL_SYS_LIBS = -L$(ISAL_DIR)/.libs -lisal
+endif
+
 SPDK_MAP_FILE = $(abspath $(CURDIR)/spdk_accel.map)
 
 include $(SPDK_ROOT_DIR)/mk/spdk.lib.mk
diff --git a/lib/util/Makefile b/lib/util/Makefile
index 167706ef6..f3f39968a 100644
--- a/lib/util/Makefile
+++ b/lib/util/Makefile
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ C_SRCS = base64.c bit_array.c cpuset.c crc16.c crc32.c crc32c.c crc32_ieee.c \
 LIBNAME = util
 LOCAL_SYS_LIBS = -luuid
 
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_ISAL), y)
+LOCAL_SYS_LIBS += -L$(ISAL_DIR)/.libs -lisal
+endif
+
 SPDK_MAP_FILE = $(abspath $(CURDIR)/spdk_util.map)
 
 include $(SPDK_ROOT_DIR)/mk/spdk.lib.mk
diff --git a/test/common/autotest_common.sh b/test/common/autotest_common.sh
index 1abb5b10e..92499cfae 100755
--- a/test/common/autotest_common.sh
+++ b/test/common/autotest_common.sh
@@ -467,10 +467,6 @@ function get_config_params() {
 		config_params+=' --enable-coverage'
 	fi
 
-	if [ $SPDK_TEST_ISAL -eq 0 ]; then
-		config_params+=' --without-isal'
-	fi
-
 	if [ $SPDK_TEST_BLOBFS -eq 1 ]; then
 		if [[ -d /usr/include/fuse3 ]] || [[ -d /usr/local/include/fuse3 ]]; then
 			config_params+=' --with-fuse'
diff --git a/test/common/config/pkgdep/git b/test/common/config/pkgdep/git
index b832bb78f..7f53e5659 100644
--- a/test/common/config/pkgdep/git
+++ b/test/common/config/pkgdep/git
@@ -136,7 +136,6 @@ function install_refspdk() {
 		# Prepare separate, fixed, cmdline for the FreeBSD, Issue #1397.
 		if [[ $OSID == freebsd ]]; then
 			config_params="--enable-debug"
-			config_params+=" --without-isal"
 			config_params+=" --with-idxd --disable-unit-tests"
 
 			MAKE=gmake
diff --git a/test/external_code/test_make.sh b/test/external_code/test_make.sh
index 284620e9b..56bc29ec6 100755
--- a/test/external_code/test_make.sh
+++ b/test/external_code/test_make.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ if [ -n "$SPDK_RUN_EXTERNAL_DPDK" ]; then
 	WITH_DPDK="--with-dpdk=$SPDK_RUN_EXTERNAL_DPDK"
 fi
 make -C $SPDK_DIR clean
-$SPDK_DIR/configure --with-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
+$SPDK_DIR/configure --with-shared --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
 make -C $SPDK_DIR -j$(nproc)
 
 export SPDK_HEADER_DIR="$SPDK_DIR/include"
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ run_test "external_run_nvme_shared" $_sudo $test_root/nvme/identify.sh
 make -C $test_root clean
 
 make -C $SPDK_DIR clean
-$SPDK_DIR/configure --without-shared --without-isal --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
+$SPDK_DIR/configure --without-shared --without-ocf --disable-asan $WITH_DPDK
 make -C $SPDK_DIR -j$(nproc)
 
 # Make both the application and bdev against individual SPDK archives.
diff --git a/test/fuzz/autofuzz.sh b/test/fuzz/autofuzz.sh
index 92766bb06..5c2099322 100755
--- a/test/fuzz/autofuzz.sh
+++ b/test/fuzz/autofuzz.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ TEST_TIMEOUT=1200
 allowed_nvme_transports=("rdma" "tcp")
 allowed_vhost_transports=("scsi" "blk" "all")
 bad_transport=true
-config_params="--enable-asan --enable-ubsan --enable-debug --without-isal"
+config_params="--enable-asan --enable-ubsan --enable-debug"
 
 # These arguments are used in addition to the test arguments in autotest_common.sh
 for i in "$@"; do