diff --git a/base/MemcachedDaemon.php b/base/MemcachedDaemon.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9d67f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base/MemcachedDaemon.php
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+<?hh
+/*
+ *  Copyright (c) 2017, Facebook, Inc.
+ *  All rights reserved.
+ *
+ *  This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
+ *  LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree. An additional grant
+ *  of patent rights can be found in the PATENTS file in the same directory.
+ *
+ */
+final class MemcachedDaemon extends Process {
+
+  private int $maxMemory = 2048;
+
+  public function __construct(
+    private PerfOptions $options,
+    private PerfTarget $target,
+  ) {
+    parent::__construct($this->options->memcached);
+  }
+
+  public function start(): void {
+    parent::startWorker(
+      $this->options->daemonOutputFileName('memcached'),
+      $this->options->delayProcessLaunch,
+      $this->options->traceSubProcess,
+    );
+  }
+
+  public function getNumThreads(): int {
+    $output = [];
+    $ret = -1;
+    if ($this->options->memcachedThreads != 0) {
+        return $this->options->memcachedThreads;
+    }
+
+    exec('nproc', &$output, &$ret);
+    if ($ret != 0) {
+       invariant_violation('%s', 'Execution of nproc failed');
+       exit(1);
+    }
+    $numProcs = (int)($output[0]);
+
+    // for small number of cores, use the default, which is 4;
+    // otherwise, we probably need more
+    if ($numProcs <= 8)
+        return 4;
+
+    return 32;
+  }
+
+  <<__Override>>
+  protected function getPidFilePath(): string {
+    return $this->options->tempDir.'/memcached.pid';
+  }
+
+  <<__Override>>
+  protected function getArguments(): Vector<string> {
+    if ($this->options->cpuBind) {
+      $this->cpuRange = $this->options->helperProcessors;
+    }
+    return Vector {
+      '-m',
+      (string) $this->maxMemory,
+      '-l',
+      '127.0.0.1',
+      '-t',
+      (string) $this->getNumThreads(),
+      '-p',
+      (string) $this->options->memcachedPort,
+      '-P', # pid file
+      $this->getPidFilePath()
+    };
+  }
+}
diff --git a/base/PerfOptions.php b/base/PerfOptions.php
index 897a54e..057002d 100644
--- a/base/PerfOptions.php
+++ b/base/PerfOptions.php
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ final class PerfOptions {
 
   public string $siege;
   public string $nginx;
+  public string $memcached;
 
   public ?string $dbUsername;
   public ?string $dbPassword;
@@ -86,6 +87,8 @@ final class PerfOptions {
 
   public bool $applyPatches = false;
 
+  public bool $useMemcached = true;
+
   //
   // All times are given in seconds, stored in a float.
   // For PHP code, the usleep timer is used, so fractional seconds work fine.
@@ -96,6 +99,7 @@ final class PerfOptions {
   //
   public float $delayNginxStartup;
   public float $delayPhpStartup;
+  public float $delayMemcachedStartup;
   public float $delayProcessLaunch; // secs to wait after start process
   public float $delayCheckHealth; // secs to wait before hit /check-health
 
@@ -122,6 +126,8 @@ final class PerfOptions {
   public bool $notBenchmarking = false;
 
   public string $dbHost = '127.0.0.1'; //The hostname/IP of server which hosts the database.
+  public int $memcachedPort; //The hostname/IP of server which hosts memcached.
+  public int $memcachedThreads; // Number of memcached threads
 
   private array $args;
   private Vector<string> $notBenchmarkingArgs = Vector {};
@@ -139,6 +145,7 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
       'no-fpm',
       'siege:',
       'nginx:',
+      'memcached:',
       'wait-at-end',
       'wait-after-warmup',
       'no-proxygen',
@@ -175,6 +182,7 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
       'trace',
       'delay-nginx-startup:',
       'delay-php-startup:',
+      'delay-memcached-startup:',
       'delay-process-launch:',
       'delay-check-health:',
       'max-delay-unfreeze:',
@@ -191,6 +199,9 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
       'server-threads:',
       'client-threads:',
       'remote-siege:',
+      'memcached-port:',
+      'memcached-threads:',
+      'no-memcached', // do not use memcached (even if target supports it)
     };
     $targets = $this->getTargetDefinitions()->keys();
     $def->addAll($targets);
@@ -237,6 +248,9 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
 
     $this->siege = hphp_array_idx($o, 'siege', 'siege');
     $this->nginx = hphp_array_idx($o, 'nginx', 'nginx');
+    $this->memcached = hphp_array_idx($o, 'memcached', 'memcached');
+    $this->memcachedPort = (int) hphp_array_idx($o, 'memcached-port', 11888);
+    $this->memcachedThreads = (int) hphp_array_idx($o, 'memcached-threads', 0);
 
     $isFacebook = array_key_exists('fbcode', $o);
     $fbcode = "";
@@ -275,6 +289,7 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
     $this->statCache = $this->getBool('stat-cache');
     $this->jit = !$this->getBool('no-jit');
     $this->applyPatches = $this->getBool('apply-patches');
+    $this->useMemcached = !$this->getBool('no-memcached');
 
     $fraction = $this->getFloat('cpu-fraction', 1.0);
     if ($fraction !== 1.0) {
@@ -317,6 +332,7 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
     $this->phpFCGIChildren = $this->getInt('php-fcgi-children', 100);
     $this->delayNginxStartup = $this->getFloat('delay-nginx-startup', 0.1);
     $this->delayPhpStartup = $this->getFloat('delay-php-startup', 1.0);
+    $this->delayMemcachedStartup = $this->getFloat('delay-memcached-startup', 1.0);
     $this->delayProcessLaunch = $this->getFloat('delay-process-launch', 0.0);
     $this->delayCheckHealth = $this->getFloat('delay-check-health', 1.0);
     $this->maxdelayUnfreeze = $this->getFloat('max-delay-unfreeze', 60.0);
@@ -343,7 +359,7 @@ public function __construct(Vector<string> $argv) {
     if (array_key_exists('client-threads', $o)) {
       $this->clientThreads = $this->args['client-threads']; 
     }
-    
+
     if ($argTempDir === null) {
       $this->tempDir = tempnam('/tmp', 'hhvm-nginx');
       // Currently a file - change to a dir
diff --git a/base/PerfRunner.php b/base/PerfRunner.php
index 151d9c5..9d62c13 100644
--- a/base/PerfRunner.php
+++ b/base/PerfRunner.php
@@ -78,6 +78,14 @@ private static function RunWithOptionsAndEngine(
     Process::sleepSeconds($options->delayNginxStartup);
     invariant($nginx->isRunning(), 'Failed to start nginx');
 
+    if ($options->useMemcached && $target->supportsMemcached()) {
+      $memcached = new MemcachedDaemon($options, $target);
+      self::PrintProgress('Starting Memcached ('.
+                          $memcached->getNumThreads().' threads)');
+      Process::sleepSeconds($options->delayMemcachedStartup);
+      $memcached->start();
+    }
+
     self::PrintProgress('Starting PHP Engine');
     $php_engine->start();
     Process::sleepSeconds($options->delayPhpStartup);
diff --git a/base/PerfTarget.php b/base/PerfTarget.php
index cfbaba9..bb1e3a8 100644
--- a/base/PerfTarget.php
+++ b/base/PerfTarget.php
@@ -110,4 +110,8 @@ public function __toString(): string {
   public function getSiegeRCPath(): ?string {
     return null;
   }
+
+  public function supportsMemcached(): bool {
+    return false;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/base/SystemChecks.php b/base/SystemChecks.php
index a471b27..bcfc5a1 100644
--- a/base/SystemChecks.php
+++ b/base/SystemChecks.php
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 class SystemChecks {
   public static function CheckAll(PerfOptions $options): void {
     self::CheckNotRoot();
-    self::CheckPortAvailability();
+    self::CheckPortAvailability($options);
     self::CheckCPUFreq();
     self::CheckTCPTimeWaitReuse();
     self::CheckForAuditd($options);
@@ -79,13 +79,18 @@ private static function CheckCPUFreq(): void {
     }
   }
 
-  private static function CheckPortAvailability(): void {
+  private static function CheckPortAvailability(PerfOptions $options): void {
     $ports = Vector {
       PerfSettings::HttpPort(),
       PerfSettings::HttpAdminPort(),
       PerfSettings::BackendPort(),
       PerfSettings::BackendAdminPort(),
     };
+    if ($options->useMemcached &&
+        $options->getTarget()->supportsMemcached()) {
+      $ports[] = $options->memcachedPort;
+    }
+
     $busy_ports = Vector {};
     foreach ($ports as $port) {
       $result = @fsockopen('localhost', $port);
diff --git a/targets/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php b/targets/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php
index a395bd3..0d3b0e2 100644
--- a/targets/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php
+++ b/targets/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php
@@ -161,6 +161,9 @@
 require_once "$IP/extensions/TitleBlacklist/TitleBlacklist.php";
 require_once "$IP/extensions/WikiEditor/WikiEditor.php";
 
+# This option should be false if we are not using memcached, otherwise it will incur a significant performance penalty
+# source: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgUseDatabaseMessages
+$wgUseDatabaseMessages = false;
 
 # End of automatically generated settings.
 # Add more configuration options below.
diff --git a/targets/mediawiki/MediaWikiTarget.php b/targets/mediawiki/MediaWikiTarget.php
index b93519b..39c5e47 100644
--- a/targets/mediawiki/MediaWikiTarget.php
+++ b/targets/mediawiki/MediaWikiTarget.php
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ protected function getSanityCheckString(): string {
     return 'Obama';
   }
 
+  private function replaceInFile(string $fileName, string $search, string $replace) {
+    $file = $this->getSourceRoot().'/'.$fileName;
+    $file_contents = file_get_contents($file);
+    $file_contents = str_replace($search, $replace, $file_contents);
+    file_put_contents($file, $file_contents);
+  }
+
   public function install(): void {
     $src_dir = $this->options->srcDir;
     if ($src_dir) {
@@ -40,16 +47,23 @@ public function install(): void {
     mkdir($cache_dir);
     copy(__DIR__.'/LocalSettings.php', $this->getSourceRoot().'/LocalSettings.php');
 
-    $file = $this->getSourceRoot().'/LocalSettings.php';
-    $file_contents = file_get_contents($file);
-    $file_contents = str_replace('__DB_HOST__', $this->options->dbHost, $file_contents );
-    file_put_contents($file, $file_contents);
+    $this->replaceInFile('LocalSettings.php', '__DB_HOST__', $this->options->dbHost);
 
     file_put_contents(
       $this->getSourceRoot().'/LocalSettings.php',
-      '$wgCacheDirectory="'.$cache_dir.'";',
+      '$wgCacheDirectory="'.$cache_dir.'";'."\n",
       FILE_APPEND,
     );
+    if ($this->options->useMemcached) {
+      copy(__DIR__.'/Memcached.php', $this->getSourceRoot().'/Memcached.php');
+      $this->replaceInFile('Memcached.php', '__MEMCACHED_HOST__', '127.0.0.1');
+      $this->replaceInFile('Memcached.php', '__MEMCACHED_PORT__', (string) $this->options->memcachedPort);
+      file_put_contents(
+        $this->getSourceRoot().'/LocalSettings.php',
+        'require_once "'.$this->getSourceRoot().'/Memcached.php";'."\n",
+        FILE_APPEND,
+      );
+    }
   }
 
   <<__Override>>
@@ -66,4 +80,9 @@ public function postInstall(): void {
   public function getSourceRoot(): string {
     return $this->options->tempDir.'/'.self::MEDIAWIKI_VERSION;
   }
+
+  <<__Override>>
+  public function supportsMemcached(): bool {
+    return true;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/targets/mediawiki/Memcached.php b/targets/mediawiki/Memcached.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad4a56d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/targets/mediawiki/Memcached.php
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?php
+
+$wgMainCacheType = CACHE_MEMCACHED;
+$wgMemCachedServers = array( "__MEMCACHED_HOST__:__MEMCACHED_PORT__" );
+
+$wgSessionCacheType = CACHE_MEMCACHED;
+# Turn this option back on if we use memcached
+$wgUseDatabaseMessages = true;