diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 1c8d603..6114da5 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ COPY --chown=telegraf:0 conf/telegraf.conf  /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf
 COPY --chown=telegraf:0 conf/nuodb.conf     /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d/static/nuodb.conf
 COPY --chown=telegraf:0 conf/outputs.conf   /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d/dynamic/outputs.conf
 
+COPY --chown=telegraf:0 bin/nuocd           /usr/local/bin/nuocd
+
 USER 1000:0
 
 CMD ["telegraf", "--config", "/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf", "--config-directory", "/etc/telegraf/telegraf.d"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cf54637..3ce43f4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -221,10 +221,12 @@ sudo cp -r nuocd /opt/
 
 The `conf/nuodb.conf` file in this repository configures all four input plugins for NuoDB running on localhost as described in the section above.
 The `conf/outputs.conf` file configures an output plugin to a InfluxDB instance defined by the `$INFLUXURL` environment variable.
+The `bin/nuocd` file is a convenience wrapper for python.
 Replace the `<hostinflux>` placeholder in the `INFLUXURL` line below with the hostname of the machine running the InfluxDB instance, and then run the commands.
 ```
 sudo cp conf/nuodb.conf /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
 sudo cp conf/outputs.conf /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
+sudo cp bin/nuocd /usr/local/bin/nuocd
 sudo chown -R telegraf.telegraf /etc/telegraf
 cat <<EOF >/etc/default/telegraf
 INFLUXURL=http://<hostinflux>:8086
diff --git a/bin/nuocd b/bin/nuocd
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..93662b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/nuocd
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# (C) Copyright NuoDB, Inc. 2020-2021  All Rights Reserved
+
+# Unfortunately, ksh93 defines builtin aliases even when run non-interactively.
+unalias -a
+
+die () { echo "$*"; exit 1; }
+
+_python=${PYTHON}
+if test -z "$_python"; then
+  _python=$(command -v python2.7) || _python=$(command -v python2) || _python=$(command -v python)  \
+  || die "Python must be installed"
+fi
+
+exec "$_python" "$@"
diff --git a/conf/nuodb.conf b/conf/nuodb.conf
index 114accd..5ea571c 100644
--- a/conf/nuodb.conf
+++ b/conf/nuodb.conf
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #  the helm chart.  probably want to put into different files.
 
 [[inputs.execd]]
-  command = [ "python", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "0", "metrics" ]
+  command = [ "nuocd", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "0", "metrics" ]
   signal = "none"
   restart_delay = "10s"
   data_format = "influx"
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
     db_tag = "nuodb"
 
 [[inputs.execd]]
-  command = [ "python", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "30", "msgtrace" ]
+  command = [ "nuocd", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "30", "msgtrace" ]
   signal = "none"
   restart_delay = "10s"
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
     db_tag = "nuodb_internal"
 
 [[inputs.execd]]
-  command = [ "python", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "30", "synctrace" ]
+  command = [ "nuocd", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_adminquery.py", "-i", "30", "synctrace" ]
   signal = "none"
   restart_delay = "10s"
 
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
     db_tag = "nuodb_internal"
 
 [[inputs.execd]]
-  command = [ "python", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_threads.py" ]
+  command = [ "nuocd", "/opt/nuocd/nuodb_threads.py" ]
   signal = "none"
   restart_delay = "10s"
 
diff --git a/conf/telegraf.conf b/conf/telegraf.conf
index c27fe50..657fd4c 100644
--- a/conf/telegraf.conf
+++ b/conf/telegraf.conf
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 [[inputs.execd]]
   # no input,  setups webserver on 0.0.0.0:5000/reload to reload configuration file via url.
-  command = [ "python", "/opt/nuocd/telegraf_reload.py" ]
+  command = [ "nuocd", "/opt/nuocd/telegraf_reload.py" ]
   signal = "none"
   restart_delay = "10s"
 
diff --git a/tests/ci/install_nuocd.sh b/tests/ci/install_nuocd.sh
index bc09304..71b0bf5 100755
--- a/tests/ci/install_nuocd.sh
+++ b/tests/ci/install_nuocd.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ pip install -r requirements.txt
 
 sudo cp conf/nuodb.conf /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
 sudo cp conf/outputs.conf /etc/telegraf/telegraf.d
+sudo cp bin/nuocd /usr/local/bin/nuocd
 
 sudo systemctl daemon-reload
 sudo systemctl stop telegraf