diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 9b0573111b..f1ed322786 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1411,7 +1411,14 @@ IF(ENABLE_TESTS)
   # Option to turn on unit testing. See
   # https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/pull/1472 for more information.
   ###
-  OPTION(ENABLE_UNIT_TESTS "Run Unit Tests." OFF)
+  OPTION(ENABLE_UNIT_TESTS "Run Unit Tests." ON)
+
+  ###
+  # Option to turn on performance testing.
+  # See https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/issues/2627 for more information.
+  ###
+  OPTION(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS "Run benchmark Tests." OFF)
+
 
   ###
   # End known-failures.
@@ -2364,6 +2371,9 @@ IF(ENABLE_TESTS)
   IF(ENABLE_EXAMPLES)
     ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(examples)
   ENDIF()
+  IF(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS)
+    ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(nc_perf)
+  ENDIF(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS)
   IF(ENABLE_UNIT_TESTS)
     ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(unit_test)
   ENDIF(ENABLE_UNIT_TESTS)
@@ -2604,6 +2614,13 @@ configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nc_test4/findplugin.in ${CMAKE_CURREN
 configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nc_test4/findplugin.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/plugins/findplugin.sh @ONLY NEWLINE_STYLE LF)
 configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nc_test4/findplugin.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/examples/C/findplugin.sh @ONLY NEWLINE_STYLE LF)
 
+IF(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS)
+  IF(ENABLE_PARALLEL4)
+    CONFIGURE_FILE(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nc_perf/run_par_bm_test.sh.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/nc_perf/run_par_bm_test.sh @ONLY NEWLINE_STYLE LF)
+    CONFIGURE_FILE(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nc_perf/run_gfs_test.sh.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/nc_perf/run_gfs_test.sh @ONLY NEWLINE_STYLE LF)
+  ENDIF(ENABLE_PARALLEL4)
+ENDIF(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS)
+
 IF(ENABLE_TESTS)
     #####
     # Build ncdap_test|dap4_test/findtestserver[4].c
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6c0698d803..be6835a599 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -325,13 +325,13 @@ fi
 
 # Does the user want to turn off unit tests (useful for test coverage
 # analysis).
-AC_MSG_CHECKING([if unit tests should be disabled])
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([if unit tests should be enabled])
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([unit-tests],
-  [AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-unit-tests],
+  [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-unit-tests],
     [Disable tests in unit_test directory. Other tests still run.])])
 test "x$enable_unit_tests" = xno || enable_unit_tests=yes
 AC_MSG_RESULT($enable_unit_tests)
-AM_CONDITIONAL([BUILD_UNIT_TESTS], [test "x$enable_unit_tests" = xyes])
+AM_CONDITIONAL(BUILD_UNIT_TESTS, [test "x$enable_unit_tests" = xyes])
 
 # Does the user require dynamic loading?
 # This is only for those hdf5 installs that support it.
diff --git a/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt b/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
index d0acdb61ef..6f6ef0ec24 100644
--- a/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@ add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_files3 tst_utils.c)
 add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_mem tst_utils.c)
 add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_wrf_reads tst_utils.c)
 add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_attsperf tst_utils.c)
+add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_bm_rando tst_utils.c)
+add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_compress tst_utils.c)
 
-add_sh_test(nc_perf run_knmi_bm)
+#add_sh_test(nc_perf run_knmi_bm)
 add_sh_test(nc_perf perftest)
 add_sh_test(nc_perf run_tst_chunks)
 add_sh_test(nc_perf run_bm_elena)
@@ -36,9 +38,11 @@ add_sh_test(nc_perf run_bm_test2)
 
 # This will run a parallel I/O benchmark for parallel builds.
 IF(TEST_PARALLEL4)
+add_bin_test(nc_perf tst_compress_par tst_utils.c)
 add_sh_test(nc_perf run_par_bm_test)
-ENDIF()
-ENDIF()
+ENDIF(TEST_PARALLEL4)
+ENDIF(BUILD_UTILITIES)
+
+FILE(GLOB COPY_FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/*.sh)
+FILE(COPY ${COPY_FILES} DESTINATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/ FILE_PERMISSIONS OWNER_WRITE OWNER_READ OWNER_EXECUTE)
 
-ADD_EXTRA_DIST(run_par_bm_test.sh.in run_knmi_bm.sh CMakeLists.txt
-perftest.sh run_bm_test1.sh run_bm_test2.sh)
diff --git a/nc_perf/run_gfs_test.sh.in b/nc_perf/run_gfs_test.sh.in
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/nc_perf/run_par_bm_test.sh.in b/nc_perf/run_par_bm_test.sh.in
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/nc_perf/tst_compress.c b/nc_perf/tst_compress.c
index 354ac422cb..1495ff4848 100644
--- a/nc_perf/tst_compress.c
+++ b/nc_perf/tst_compress.c
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <math.h>
 #include <netcdf.h>
-#include <netcdf_par.h>
 #include <netcdf_meta.h>
 
 #define TEST_NAME "tst_compress"