diff --git a/cta.spec.in b/cta.spec.in
index a12928a42c724eb7d8a763a66cc97823af1536b3..fdbeeade87af35ca5a13fb0f57db23a6914d1ff2 100644
--- a/cta.spec.in
+++ b/cta.spec.in
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ The xroot plugin
 %attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) /etc/logrotate.d/cta-frontend
 %attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) /etc/xrootd/xrootd-cta.cfg
 %attr(0644,root,root) %config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cta/cta-frontend.conf
+%attr(0644,cta,cta) /etc/systemd/system/cta-frontend.service
 
 #Frontend installs libraries so we need ldconfig.
 %post -n cta-frontend -p /sbin/ldconfig
diff --git a/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend.service b/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..17a868112a70154c3348733665de7f7ccbdfddf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xroot_plugins/cta-frontend.service
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=CTA frontend plugin for the XRoot deamon 
+After=network-online.target
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/xrootd -l /var/log/cta-frontend-xrootd.log -c /etc/cta/cta-frontend-xrootd.conf -k fifo -n cta
+User=cta
+Group=cta
+Type=simple
+Restart=no
+LimitCORE=infinity
+LimitNOFILE=65536
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=default.target