diff --git a/clock/randomticker.go b/clock/randomticker.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d895fbcece
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clock/randomticker.go
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+package clock
+
+import (
+	"math/rand"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// RandomTicker ticks at dur +- jitter
+type RandomTicker struct {
+	C        chan time.Time
+	stopc    chan struct{}
+	dur      time.Duration
+	jitt     time.Duration
+	blocking bool
+}
+
+// NewRandomTicker returns a new RandomTicker containing a channel that will send the time with a period specified by the duration and jitter arguments.
+// It adjusts the intervals or drops ticks to make up for slow receivers. The duration and jitter must be greater than zero; if not, NewTicker will panic.
+// duration must be >= jitter.
+// Stop the ticker to release associated resources.
+func NewRandomTicker(dur, jitt time.Duration, blocking bool) *RandomTicker {
+	rt := RandomTicker{
+		C:        make(chan time.Time),
+		stopc:    make(chan struct{}),
+		dur:      dur,
+		jitt:     jitt,
+		blocking: blocking,
+	}
+	go rt.run()
+	return &rt
+}
+
+// Stop turns off the ticker. After Stop, no more ticks will be sent.
+// Stop does not close the channel, to prevent a concurrent goroutine reading from the channel from seeing an erroneous "tick".
+func (rt *RandomTicker) Stop() {
+	rt.stopc <- struct{}{}
+	<-rt.stopc
+}
+
+func (rt *RandomTicker) run() {
+	for {
+		t := time.NewTimer(rt.duration())
+		select {
+		case <-rt.stopc:
+			t.Stop()
+			close(rt.stopc)
+			return
+		case <-t.C:
+			if rt.blocking {
+				rt.C <- time.Now()
+			} else {
+				select {
+				case rt.C <- time.Now():
+				default:
+				}
+			}
+			t.Stop()
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func (rt *RandomTicker) duration() time.Duration {
+	if rt.jitt > 0 {
+		return rt.dur + time.Duration(rand.Int63n(int64(2*rt.jitt))) - rt.jitt
+	}
+	return rt.dur
+}
diff --git a/cmd/mt-fakemetrics/cmd/containers.go b/cmd/mt-fakemetrics/cmd/containers.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d7960e0824
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/mt-fakemetrics/cmd/containers.go
@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+// Copyright © 2018 Grafana Labs
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package cmd
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/grafana/metrictank/clock"
+	"github.com/grafana/metrictank/cmd/mt-fakemetrics/out"
+	"github.com/grafana/metrictank/cmd/mt-fakemetrics/policy"
+	"github.com/grafana/metrictank/schema"
+	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
+)
+
+var containersCmd = &cobra.Command{
+	Use:   "containers",
+	Short: "Mimic a set of containers - with churn - whose stats get reported at the same time",
+	Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
+		checkOutputs()
+		period = int(periodDur.Seconds())
+
+		// since we have so many small little outputs they would each be sending the same data which would be a bit crazy.
+		initStats(false, "containers")
+		churnSplit := strings.Split(churn, ":")
+		if len(churnSplit) != 3 {
+			log.Fatalf("churnspec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+		}
+		cycleDur, err := time.ParseDuration(churnSplit[0])
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("churnspec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+		}
+		cycleJitter, err := time.ParseDuration(churnSplit[1])
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("churnspec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+		}
+		cyclePct, err := strconv.Atoi(churnSplit[2])
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("churnspec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+		}
+		if cyclePct < 0 || cyclePct > 100 {
+			log.Fatalf("churnspec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+		}
+
+		rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
+
+		for i := 0; i < numContainers; i++ {
+			var key [8]byte
+			rand.Read(key[:])
+			containers = append(containers, key)
+		}
+
+		vp, err := policy.ParseValuePolicy(valuePolicy)
+		if err != nil {
+			panic(err)
+		}
+		monitorContainers(cycleDur, cycleJitter, cyclePct, vp)
+	},
+}
+
+var (
+	containers            [][8]byte
+	numContainers         int
+	numContainersPerBatch int
+	metricsPerContainer   int
+	churn                 string
+)
+
+func init() {
+	rootCmd.AddCommand(containersCmd)
+	containersCmd.Flags().IntVar(&numContainers, "containers", 1000, "how many containers to simulate")
+	containersCmd.Flags().IntVar(&numContainersPerBatch, "batch", 10, "how many containers's metrics should go into each batch")
+	containersCmd.Flags().IntVar(&metricsPerContainer, "metrics", 10, "how many metrics per container to simulate")
+	containersCmd.Flags().DurationVar(&periodDur, "period", 10*time.Second, "period between metric points (must be a multiple of 1s)")
+	containersCmd.Flags().StringVar(&churn, "churn", "4h:0h:50", "churn spec: <cycle time>:<cycle time noise>:<pct of containers to cycle>")
+	containersCmd.Flags().StringVar(&valuePolicy, "value-policy", "", "a value policy (i.e. \"single:1\" \"multiple:1,2,3,4,5\" \"timestamp\" \"daily-sine:<peak>,<offset>,<stdev>\")")
+
+}
+
+// containerChurn keeps pct of the existing containers (random selection) and replaces the other ones with new ones
+// during this process, containers also gets shuffled
+func containerChurn(pct int) {
+	rand.Shuffle(len(containers), func(i, j int) {
+		containers[i], containers[j] = containers[j], containers[i]
+	})
+	for i := pct * len(containers) / 100; i < len(containers); i++ {
+		var key [8]byte
+		rand.Read(key[:])
+		containers[i] = key
+	}
+}
+
+func containerFlush(now time.Time, vp policy.ValuePolicy, out out.Out) {
+	var batch []*schema.MetricData
+	ts := now.Unix()
+	var numContainers int
+	for _, id := range containers {
+		for i := 0; i < metricsPerContainer; i++ {
+			met := &schema.MetricData{
+				Name:     fmt.Sprintf("mt-fakemetrics.container.%x.metric.%d", id, i),
+				OrgId:    1,
+				Interval: period,
+				Value:    vp.Value(ts),
+				Unit:     "ms",
+				Mtype:    "gauge",
+				Time:     ts,
+			}
+			met.SetId()
+			batch = append(batch, met)
+		}
+		numContainers++
+		if numContainers == numContainersPerBatch {
+			err := out.Flush(batch)
+			if err != nil {
+				log.Error(0, err.Error())
+			}
+			numContainers = 0
+			batch = batch[:0]
+		}
+	}
+	if numContainers > 0 {
+		err := out.Flush(batch)
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Error(0, err.Error())
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func monitorContainers(cycleDur, cycleJitter time.Duration, cyclePct int, vp policy.ValuePolicy) {
+	out := getOutput()
+	tickFlush := clock.AlignedTickLossless(periodDur)
+	tickChurn := clock.NewRandomTicker(cycleDur, cycleJitter, true)
+	for {
+		select {
+		case t := <-tickFlush:
+			containerFlush(t, vp, out)
+		case <-tickChurn.C:
+			containerChurn(cyclePct)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/docs/tools.md b/docs/tools.md
index 513a2727b0..ab360d4110 100644
--- a/docs/tools.md
+++ b/docs/tools.md
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ Available Commands:
   agginput         A particular workload good to test performance of carbon-relay-ng aggregators
   backfill         backfills old data and stops when 'now' is reached
   bad              Sends out invalid/out-of-order/duplicate metric data
+  containers       Mimic a set of containers - with churn - whose stats get reported at the same time
   feed             Publishes a realtime feed of data
   help             Help about any command
   resolutionchange Sends out metric with changing intervals, time range 24hours