diff --git a/lib/ceilometer b/lib/ceilometer
index 7bd1421118..4030aca9a1 100644
--- a/lib/ceilometer
+++ b/lib/ceilometer
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ function configure_ceilometer {
 
     if [ "$CEILOMETER_BACKEND" = 'mysql' ] || [ "$CEILOMETER_BACKEND" = 'postgresql' ] ; then
         iniset $CEILOMETER_CONF database connection `database_connection_url ceilometer`
+        iniset $CEILOMETER_CONF DEFAULT collector_workers $(( ($(nproc) + 1) / 2 ))
     else
         iniset $CEILOMETER_CONF database connection mongodb://localhost:27017/ceilometer
         configure_mongodb