diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
index 8052499ab752..4bb553f14f18 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
@@ -1463,12 +1463,13 @@ object SparkContext extends Logging {
     // Regular expression for connection to Simr cluster
     val SIMR_REGEX = """simr://(.*)""".r
 
-    // When running locally, don't try to re-execute tasks on failure.
+    // When running locally, by default don't try to re-execute tasks on failure.
     val MAX_LOCAL_TASK_FAILURES = 1
 
     master match {
       case "local" =>
-        val scheduler = new TaskSchedulerImpl(sc, MAX_LOCAL_TASK_FAILURES, isLocal = true)
+        val maxTaskFailures = sc.conf.getInt("spark.local.maxFailures", MAX_LOCAL_TASK_FAILURES)
+        val scheduler = new TaskSchedulerImpl(sc, maxTaskFailures, isLocal = true)
         val backend = new LocalBackend(scheduler, 1)
         scheduler.initialize(backend)
         scheduler
@@ -1477,7 +1478,8 @@ object SparkContext extends Logging {
         def localCpuCount = Runtime.getRuntime.availableProcessors()
         // local[*] estimates the number of cores on the machine; local[N] uses exactly N threads.
         val threadCount = if (threads == "*") localCpuCount else threads.toInt
-        val scheduler = new TaskSchedulerImpl(sc, MAX_LOCAL_TASK_FAILURES, isLocal = true)
+        val maxTaskFailures = sc.conf.getInt("spark.local.maxFailures", MAX_LOCAL_TASK_FAILURES)
+        val scheduler = new TaskSchedulerImpl(sc, maxTaskFailures, isLocal = true)
         val backend = new LocalBackend(scheduler, threadCount)
         scheduler.initialize(backend)
         scheduler
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite.scala
index 67e3be21c3c9..83a1ea35813c 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite.scala
@@ -59,6 +59,22 @@ class SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite
     }
   }
 
+  test("local-conf-failures") {
+    val defaultLocalMaxFailures = System.getProperty("spark.local.maxFailures")
+    System.setProperty("spark.local.maxFailures", "10")
+    val sched = createTaskScheduler("local")
+    assert(sched.maxTaskFailures === 10)
+    sched.backend match {
+      case s: LocalBackend => assert(s.totalCores === 1)
+      case _ => fail()
+    }
+
+    Option(defaultLocalMaxFailures) match {
+      case Some(v) => System.setProperty("spark.local.maxFailures", v)
+      case _ => System.clearProperty("spark.local.maxFailures")
+    }
+  }
+
   test("local-n") {
     val sched = createTaskScheduler("local[5]")
     assert(sched.maxTaskFailures === 1)
@@ -68,6 +84,22 @@ class SparkContextSchedulerCreationSuite
     }
   }
 
+  test("local-n-conf-failures") {
+    val defaultLocalMaxFailures = System.getProperty("spark.local.maxFailures")
+    System.setProperty("spark.local.maxFailures", "10")
+    val sched = createTaskScheduler("local[5]")
+    assert(sched.maxTaskFailures === 10)
+    sched.backend match {
+      case s: LocalBackend => assert(s.totalCores === 5)
+      case _ => fail()
+    }
+
+    Option(defaultLocalMaxFailures) match {
+      case Some(v) => System.setProperty("spark.local.maxFailures", v)
+      case _ => System.clearProperty("spark.local.maxFailures")
+    }
+  }
+
   test("local-n-failures") {
     val sched = createTaskScheduler("local[4, 2]")
     assert(sched.maxTaskFailures === 2)
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index a70007c16544..88486aef18fb 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -599,6 +599,15 @@ Apart from these, the following properties are also available, and may be useful
   <td>
     Number of individual task failures before giving up on the job.
     Should be greater than or equal to 1. Number of allowed retries = this value - 1.
+    Does not apply to running Spark locally.
+  </td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><code>spark.local.maxFailures</code></td>
+  <td>1</td>
+  <td>
+    Number of individual task failures before giving up on the job, when running Spark locally.
+    Should be greater than or equal to 1. Number of allowed retries = this value - 1.
   </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>