diff --git a/etc/rpc_deploy/user_variables.yml b/etc/rpc_deploy/user_variables.yml
index c706c1906c..52a11d5da3 100644
--- a/etc/rpc_deploy/user_variables.yml
+++ b/etc/rpc_deploy/user_variables.yml
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ container_openstack_password:
 ## Galera Options
 mysql_root_password:
 
+# Defined in group_vars/galera, but can overriden here.
+# galera_wait_timeout: 3600
+
 
 ## Keystone Options
 keystone_container_mysql_password:
diff --git a/rpc_deployment/inventory/group_vars/galera.yml b/rpc_deployment/inventory/group_vars/galera.yml
index ff9198fb0c..14a777ba7d 100644
--- a/rpc_deployment/inventory/group_vars/galera.yml
+++ b/rpc_deployment/inventory/group_vars/galera.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ container_lvm_fssize: 5GB
 # Size of the galera cache
 galera_gcache_size: 1G
 
+# Connection timeout https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/documentation/optimization-and-tuning/system-variables/server-system-variables/#wait_timeout
+galera_wait_timeout: 28800
+
 service_pip_dependencies:
   - MySQL-python
   - python-memcached
diff --git a/rpc_deployment/roles/galera_config/templates/my.cnf b/rpc_deployment/roles/galera_config/templates/my.cnf
index a476d37f10..6ceef1c59c 100644
--- a/rpc_deployment/roles/galera_config/templates/my.cnf
+++ b/rpc_deployment/roles/galera_config/templates/my.cnf
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ max-connect-errors = 1000000
 # These are the computed max_connections based on cluster data {{ calculated_max_connections }}
 max_connections = {{ mysql_max_connections | default(calculated_max_connections[0]) }}
 
+wait_timeout = {{ galera_wait_timeout }}
+
 # CACHES AND LIMITS #
 tmp-table-size = 32M
 max-heap-table-size = 32M