diff --git a/openbis/dist/server/install.sh b/openbis/dist/server/install.sh
index b23f9859e9c66ec141fee67994b15bf4f308247c..2e3b998a4825ccac8112b5676079618d39b9d34a 100755
--- a/openbis/dist/server/install.sh
+++ b/openbis/dist/server/install.sh
@@ -105,6 +105,15 @@ test -f "$logconf_file" && cp -p "$logconf_file" "$war_classes/etc/"
 echo "Make the configuration checksum file available : " $checksum_file
 test -f "$checksum_file" && cp -p "$checksum_file" "$base_folder"
 
+# unzip native libraries
+LIB_FOLDER="$openbis_webapp/WEB-INF/lib"
+rm -rf $LIB_FOLDER/native
+unzip -q $LIB_FOLDER/sis-base-*.jar -d $LIB_FOLDER native/*
+unzip -q $LIB_FOLDER/hdf5-macosx-*.jar -d $LIB_FOLDER native/*
+unzip -q $LIB_FOLDER/hdf5-linux-*.jar -d $LIB_FOLDER native/*
+unzip -q $LIB_FOLDER/hdf5-windows-*.jar -d $LIB_FOLDER native/*
+
+
 echo installing core-plugins
 if [ -f "$server_folder/../core-plugins/core-plugins.properties" ]; then
     excludingStuff="-x core-plugins/core-plugins.properties" 
diff --git a/openbis/dist/server/startup.sh b/openbis/dist/server/startup.sh
index 44c1b6d4aa3d293f3427919abc2415e779d9b2e2..32d681e828a7aad5c0694e870d86ab461e833c5c 100755
--- a/openbis/dist/server/startup.sh
+++ b/openbis/dist/server/startup.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ $JVM -DSTOP.PORT=$JETTY_STOP_PORT \
      $JAVA_OPTS $JAVA_MEM_OPTS \
      $OPENBIS_OPTS \
      -Dpython.path=$JETTY_LIB_PATH \
+     -Dnative.libpath=$JETTY_BIN_DIR/../webapps/openbis/WEB-INF/lib/native \
      -jar ../jetty-dist/start.jar --lib=lib/logging/*.jar:webapps/openbis/WEB-INF/lib/*.jar etc/jetty-started.xml >> logs/jetty.out 2>&1 &
 
 # Write PID to PID file