diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 11d2fb2..2c707af 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ and can be used to install any pre-requisites.
       {{mapred_local_dirs}}
       {{spark_local_dirs}}
       {{default_spark_mem}}
+      {{spark_worker_instances}}
+      {{spark_worker_cores}}
+      {{spark_master_opts}}
       
    You can add new variables by modifying `deploy_templates.py`
    
diff --git a/deploy_templates.py b/deploy_templates.py
index a2840f7..99b5568 100755
--- a/deploy_templates.py
+++ b/deploy_templates.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 # Find system memory in KB and compute Spark's default limit from that
 mem_command = "cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal | awk '{print $2}'"
+cpu_command = "nproc"
 
 master_ram_kb = int(
   os.popen(mem_command).read().strip())
@@ -20,8 +21,14 @@
 
 slave_mem_command = "ssh -t -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no %s %s" %\
         (first_slave, mem_command)
+
+slave_cpu_command = "ssh -t -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no %s %s" %\
+        (first_slave, cpu_command)
+
 slave_ram_kb = int(os.popen(slave_mem_command).read().strip())
 
+slave_cpus = int(os.popen(slave_cpu_command).read().strip())
+
 system_ram_kb = min(slave_ram_kb, master_ram_kb)
 
 system_ram_mb = system_ram_kb / 1024
@@ -42,6 +49,10 @@
 # Make tachyon_mb as spark_mb for now.
 tachyon_mb = spark_mb
 
+worker_instances = int(os.getenv("SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES", 1))
+# Distribute equally cpu cores among worker instances
+worker_cores = max(slave_cpus / worker_instances, 1)
+
 template_vars = {
   "master_list": os.getenv("MASTERS"),
   "active_master": os.getenv("MASTERS").split("\n")[0],
@@ -50,6 +61,9 @@
   "mapred_local_dirs": os.getenv("MAPRED_LOCAL_DIRS"),
   "spark_local_dirs": os.getenv("SPARK_LOCAL_DIRS"),
   "default_spark_mem": "%dm" % spark_mb,
+  "spark_worker_instances": "%d" %  worker_instances,
+  "spark_worker_cores": "%d" %  worker_cores,
+  "spark_master_opts": os.getenv("SPARK_MASTER_OPTS"),
   "spark_version": os.getenv("SPARK_VERSION"),
   "shark_version": os.getenv("SHARK_VERSION"),
   "hadoop_major_version": os.getenv("HADOOP_MAJOR_VERSION"),
diff --git a/templates/root/spark/conf/spark-env.sh b/templates/root/spark/conf/spark-env.sh
index d5077ea..d5ecc89 100755
--- a/templates/root/spark/conf/spark-env.sh
+++ b/templates/root/spark/conf/spark-env.sh
@@ -20,12 +20,17 @@ export SPARK_MEM={{default_spark_mem}}
 SPARK_JAVA_OPTS+=" -Dspark.local.dir={{spark_local_dirs}}"
 export SPARK_JAVA_OPTS
 
+export SPARK_MASTER_OPTS="{{spark_master_opts}}"
+
 export HADOOP_HOME="/root/ephemeral-hdfs"
 export SPARK_LIBRARY_PATH="/root/ephemeral-hdfs/lib/native/"
 export SPARK_MASTER_IP={{active_master}}
 export MASTER=`cat /root/spark-ec2/cluster-url`
 export SPARK_CLASSPATH=$SPARK_CLASSPATH":/root/ephemeral-hdfs/conf"
 
+export SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES={{spark_worker_instances}}
+export SPARK_WORKER_CORES={{spark_worker_cores}}
+
 # Bind Spark's web UIs to this machine's public EC2 hostname:
 export SPARK_PUBLIC_DNS=`wget -q -O - http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-hostname`