diff --git a/confluent_osdeploy/esxi7/profiles/hypervisor/scripts/getinstalldisk b/confluent_osdeploy/esxi7/profiles/hypervisor/scripts/getinstalldisk
index 9853599b..b32cdc59 100644
--- a/confluent_osdeploy/esxi7/profiles/hypervisor/scripts/getinstalldisk
+++ b/confluent_osdeploy/esxi7/profiles/hypervisor/scripts/getinstalldisk
@@ -109,7 +109,9 @@ class DiskInfo(object):
         if self.size < 2048:
             raise SilentException("Too small")
         if storagespec and storagespec == 'm2':
-            if self.model.lower() not in PRIORITY_MODELS and not devinfo.get('m2_slot', None):
+            if (self.model.lower() not in PRIORITY_MODELS
+                    and not devinfo.get('m2_slot', None)
+                    and self.driver != 'iavmd'):
                 raise SilentException("Not an M.2 disk")
                
             
@@ -121,6 +123,8 @@ class DiskInfo(object):
             return 0
         if self.model.lower() in PRIORITY_MODELS:
             return 0
+        if self.driver == 'iavmd':
+            return 1
         if self.driver == 'vmw_ahci':
             return 2
         if self.driver == 'nvme_pcie':
diff --git a/confluent_server/builddeb b/confluent_server/builddeb
index a4b2cada..0603984d 100755
--- a/confluent_server/builddeb
+++ b/confluent_server/builddeb
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ if [ "$OPKGNAME" = "confluent-server" ]; then
         sed -i 's/^\(Depends:.*\)/\1, confluent-client, python3-lxml, python3-cryptography, python3-websocket, python3-msgpack, python3-aiohttp, python3-pyparsing, python3-asyncssh, python3-pysnmp4, python3-libarchive-c, confluent-vtbufferd, python3-netifaces, python3-yaml, python3-dateutil, python3-crypt-r, python3-numpy, python3-pillow/' debian/control
     fi
     # only BIOS settings on IMM2-era Lenovo BMCs need it, and Ubuntu does not package it
-    sed -i '/^Depends:/a Recommends: python3-eficompressor' debian/control
+    sed -i '/^Depends:/a Recommends: python3-eficompressor, rsync' debian/control
     echo 'confluent_client confluent-client' >> debian/pydist-overrides
 
 fi
diff --git a/confluent_server/confluent/syncfiles.py b/confluent_server/confluent/syncfiles.py
index afba5da2..71c4916a 100644
--- a/confluent_server/confluent/syncfiles.py
+++ b/confluent_server/confluent/syncfiles.py
@@ -349,6 +349,10 @@ def start_syncfiles(nodename, cfg, suffixes, principals=[]):
     sl = SyncList(synclist, nodename, cfg)
     if not (sl.appendmap or sl.mergemap or sl.replacemap or sl.appendoncemap):
         return 200, 'OK', 'Empty synclist'  # the synclist has no actual entries
+    if not shutil.which('rsync'):
+        return 500, 'Error', (
+            'File synchronization requires rsync. '
+            'Install rsync on the Confluent server and retry.')
     if nodename in syncrunners:
         if syncrunners[nodename].done():
             try: