diff --git a/awx/main/management/commands/enable_auth_system.py b/awx/main/management/commands/enable_auth_system.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..940380ff4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/awx/main/management/commands/enable_auth_system.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2015 Ansible, Inc.
+# All Rights Reserved
+
+from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
+from django.conf import settings
+import argparse
+
+
+class Command(BaseCommand):
+    """enable or disable authentication system"""
+
+    def add_arguments(self, parser):
+        """
+        This adds the --enable functionality to the command using argparse to allow either enable or no-enable
+        """
+        parser.add_argument('--enable', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction, help='to disable local auth --no-enable to enable --enable')
+
+    def _enable_disable_auth(self, enable):
+        """
+        this method allows the disabling or enabling of local authenication based on the argument passed into the parser
+        if no arguments throw a command error, if --enable set the DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH to False
+        if --no-enable set to True. Realizing that the flag is counterintuitive to what is expected.
+        """
+        if enable == None:
+            raise CommandError('Please --enable to allow local auth or --no-enable to disable local auth')
+        if enable:
+            settings.DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH = False
+            print("Setting has changed to {} allowing local authentication".format(settings.DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH))
+            return
+
+        settings.DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH = True
+        print("Setting has changed to {} disallowing local authentication".format(settings.DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH))
+
+    def handle(self, **options):
+        self._enable_disable_auth(options.get('enable'))