diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fb618f8e5..00581bc4a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ elseif("${BUILD_TYPE_UPPER}" STREQUAL "DEBUG")
     set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-g -O0 ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS}")
 elseif("${BUILD_TYPE_UPPER}" STREQUAL "RELWITHDEBINFO")
     set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "RelWithDebInfo" CACHE STRING "Build Type" FORCE)
+    set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-DNDEBUG -g -O2 ${CMAKE_C_FLAGS}")
 elseif("${BUILD_TYPE_UPPER}" STREQUAL "RELWITHDEBUG")
     set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "RelWithDebug" CACHE STRING "Build Type" FORCE)
 elseif("${BUILD_TYPE_UPPER}" STREQUAL "ABICHECK")
diff --git a/distro/pkg/deb/control b/distro/pkg/deb/control
index da96a91e4..e978149a1 100644
--- a/distro/pkg/deb/control
+++ b/distro/pkg/deb/control
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@ Build-Depends: cmake,
                debhelper (>= 10),
                libyang-dev,
                libsystemd-dev,
-               pkg-config
+               pkg-config,
+               libcmocka-dev,
+               valgrind
+
 Vcs-Browser: https://github.com/sysrepo/sysrepo/tree/master
 Vcs-Git: https://github.com/sysrepo/sysrepo.git
 
diff --git a/distro/pkg/deb/rules b/distro/pkg/deb/rules
index 897c275f4..01d374ae9 100755
--- a/distro/pkg/deb/rules
+++ b/distro/pkg/deb/rules
@@ -4,12 +4,21 @@ export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
 
 include /usr/share/dpkg/default.mk
 
+# determine number of processors to enable parallel tests
+NPROCS:=$(shell grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)
+
 %:
-	dh $@
+	dh $@ -j
 
 override_dh_auto_configure:
 	dh_auto_configure -- \
-		-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:String="Release" \
+		-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:String="RelWithDebInfo" \
 		-DSYSREPO_UMASK=007 \
 		-DSYSREPO_GROUP=sysrepo \
 		-DNACM_SRMON_DATA_PERM=660
+
+override_dh_auto_test:
+ifeq ($(filter nocheck,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)),)
+    make -C obj-$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE) test ARGS=' -j $(NPROCS) -V'
+    make -C obj-$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE) test_clean
+endif