diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile b/docker/Dockerfile
index 13ee7144..101b6bab 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ ENV \
     CASSANDRA_PASSWORD=password \
     CASSANDRA_KEY_SPACE=monasca \
     CASSANDRA_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT=5 \
+    CASSANDRA_MAX_CACHE_SIZE=20000000 \
     CASSANDRA_RETENTION_POLICY=45 \
     STAY_ALIVE_ON_FAILURE="false"
 
diff --git a/docker/README.rst b/docker/README.rst
index 14112459..d7085dc6 100644
--- a/docker/README.rst
+++ b/docker/README.rst
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ CASSANDRA_USER                  mon_persister     Cassandra user name
 CASSANDRA_PASSWORD              password          Cassandra password
 CASSANDRA_KEY_SPACE             monasca           Keyspace name where metrics are stored
 CASSANDRA_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT    5                 Cassandra timeout in seconds
+CASSANDRA_MAX_CACHE_SIZE        20000000          Maximum number of cached metric definition entries in memory
 CASSANDRA_RETENTION_POLICY      45                Data retention period in days
 STAY_ALIVE_ON_FAILURE           false             If true, container runs 2 hours even start fails
 =============================== ================= ================================================
diff --git a/docker/monasca-persister.conf.j2 b/docker/monasca-persister.conf.j2
index ab5ed28f..dfca35ab 100644
--- a/docker/monasca-persister.conf.j2
+++ b/docker/monasca-persister.conf.j2
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ keyspace = {{ CASSANDRA_KEY_SPACE }}
 user = {{ CASSANDRA_USER }}
 password = {{ CASSANDRA_PASSWORD }}
 connection_timeout = {{ CASSANDRA_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT }}
+max_definition_cache_size = {{ CASSANDRA_MAX_CACHE_SIZE }}
 retention_policy = {{ CASSANDRA_RETENTION_POLICY }}
 {% else %}
 [influxdb]