diff --git a/doc/source/devref/effective_neutron.rst b/doc/source/devref/effective_neutron.rst
index ea977dd9b97..e3ca9353bbe 100644
--- a/doc/source/devref/effective_neutron.rst
+++ b/doc/source/devref/effective_neutron.rst
@@ -216,6 +216,12 @@ and interacting with linux utils.
   visibility (as these patches are brought up to the attention of the core team
   during team meetings). More details in `review guidelines
   <http://docs.openstack.org/developer/neutron/policies/code-reviews.html#neutron-spec-review-practices>`_.
+* When a patch or the code depends on a new feature in the kernel or in any platform tools
+  (dnsmasq, ip, Open vSwitch etc.), consider introducing a new sanity check to
+  validate deployments for the expected features. Note that sanity checks *must
+  not* check for version numbers of underlying platform tools because
+  distributions may decide to backport needed features into older versions.
+  Instead, sanity checks should validate actual features by attempting to use them.
 
 Eventlet concurrent model
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/neutron/cmd/sanity_check.py b/neutron/cmd/sanity_check.py
index ef1e5cfd9b1..a03897778d6 100644
--- a/neutron/cmd/sanity_check.py
+++ b/neutron/cmd/sanity_check.py
@@ -297,7 +297,9 @@ OPTS = [
     BoolOptCallback('read_netns', check_read_netns,
                     help=_('Check netns permission settings')),
     BoolOptCallback('dnsmasq_version', check_dnsmasq_version,
-                    help=_('Check minimal dnsmasq version')),
+                    help=_('Check minimal dnsmasq version'),
+                    deprecated_for_removal=True,
+                    deprecated_since='Pike'),
     BoolOptCallback('ovsdb_native', check_ovsdb_native,
                     help=_('Check ovsdb native interface support')),
     BoolOptCallback('ovs_conntrack', check_ovs_conntrack,
@@ -307,7 +309,9 @@ OPTS = [
     BoolOptCallback('keepalived_ipv6_support', check_keepalived_ipv6_support,
                     help=_('Check keepalived IPv6 support')),
     BoolOptCallback('dibbler_version', check_dibbler_version,
-                    help=_('Check minimal dibbler version')),
+                    help=_('Check minimal dibbler version'),
+                    deprecated_for_removal=True,
+                    deprecated_since='Pike'),
     BoolOptCallback('ipset_installed', check_ipset,
                     help=_('Check ipset installation')),
     BoolOptCallback('ip6tables_installed', check_ip6tables,
@@ -352,8 +356,6 @@ def enable_tests_from_config():
         cfg.CONF.set_default('icmpv6_header_match', True)
     if not cfg.CONF.AGENT.use_helper_for_ns_read:
         cfg.CONF.set_default('read_netns', True)
-    if cfg.CONF.dhcp_driver == 'neutron.agent.linux.dhcp.Dnsmasq':
-        cfg.CONF.set_default('dnsmasq_version', True)
     if cfg.CONF.OVS.ovsdb_interface == 'native':
         cfg.CONF.set_default('ovsdb_native', True)
     if cfg.CONF.l3_ha: