diff --git a/modules/logstash/files/logstash-indexer.conf b/modules/logstash/files/logstash-indexer.conf
index 19d99712ca..49b2fc1619 100644
--- a/modules/logstash/files/logstash-indexer.conf
+++ b/modules/logstash/files/logstash-indexer.conf
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-# logstash - indexer instance
+logstash - indexer instance
 #
-# Copied from http://cookbook.logstash.net/recipes/using-upstart/
+# Adapted from http://cookbook.logstash.net/recipes/using-upstart/
 
 description     "logstash indexer instance"
 
@@ -10,15 +10,18 @@ stop on runlevel [06]
 # Respawn it if the process exits
 respawn
 respawn limit 5 30
-expect fork
 
 # You need to chdir somewhere writable because logstash needs to unpack a few
 # temporary files on startup.
 chdir /opt/logstash
 
-script
+setuid logstash
 
-  # This runs logstash indexer as the 'logstash' user
-  su -s /bin/sh -c 'exec "$0" "$@"' logstash -- /usr/bin/java -jar logstash.jar agent -f /etc/logstash/indexer.conf --log /var/log/logstash/indexer.log &
-  emit logstash-indexer-running
+script
+  JAVA_ARGS=''
+  if [ -f /etc/default/logstash-indexer ] ;
+  then
+    . /etc/default/logstash-indexer
+  fi
+  exec /usr/bin/java $JAVA_ARGS -jar logstash.jar agent -f /etc/logstash/indexer.conf --log /var/log/logstash/indexer.log
 end script
diff --git a/modules/openstack_project/files/logstash/logstash-indexer.default b/modules/openstack_project/files/logstash/logstash-indexer.default
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..57f6819aac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/openstack_project/files/logstash/logstash-indexer.default
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Increase the max heap size to twice the default.
+# Default is 25% of memory or 1g whichever is less.
+JAVA_ARGS='-Xmx2g'
diff --git a/modules/openstack_project/manifests/logstash_worker.pp b/modules/openstack_project/manifests/logstash_worker.pp
index f3864b79af..5077cb7e93 100644
--- a/modules/openstack_project/manifests/logstash_worker.pp
+++ b/modules/openstack_project/manifests/logstash_worker.pp
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ class openstack_project::logstash_worker (
     sysadmins                 => $sysadmins,
   }
 
+  file { '/etc/default/logstash-indexer':
+    ensure => present,
+    owner  => 'root',
+    group  => 'root',
+    mode   => '0644',
+    source => 'puppet:///modules/openstack_project/logstash/logstash-indexer.default',
+  }
+
   class { 'logstash::indexer':
     conf_template => 'openstack_project/logstash/indexer.conf.erb',
   }