diff --git a/roles/mote/files/memcached.override b/roles/mote/files/memcached.override
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8445bc19aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/mote/files/memcached.override
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+[Service]
+User=memcached
+Group=apache
+RuntimeDirectory=memcached
diff --git a/roles/mote/files/memcached.sysconfig b/roles/mote/files/memcached.sysconfig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..01626f262e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/mote/files/memcached.sysconfig
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+PORT="11211"
+USER="memcached"
+MAXCONN="1024"
+CACHESIZE="4096"
+OPTIONS="-s /var/run/memcached/memcached.sock -a 0770"
diff --git a/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml b/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
index 8d8aedb217..93c3d2796e 100644
--- a/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/mote/tasks/main.yml
@@ -5,10 +5,50 @@
   package: name={{ item }} state=present
   with_items:
   - mote
+  - memcached
   tags:
   - packages
   - mote
 
+- name: set the memcached sysconfig file
+  copy:
+    src: memcached.sysconfig
+    dest: /etc/sysconfig/memcached
+  tags:
+  - mote
+  notify:
+  - restart memcached
+
+- name: make systemd override dir
+  file:
+    state: directory
+    path: /etc/systemd/system/memcached.service.d
+    mode: 0755
+    owner: root
+    group: root
+  tags:
+  - mote
+
+- name: make systemd override config
+  copy:
+    src: memcached.override
+    dest: /etc/systemd/system/memcached.service.d/override.conf
+  tags:
+  - mote
+  notify:
+  - reload systemd
+  - restart memcached
+
+- meta: flush_handlers
+
+- name: start memcached
+  service:
+    state: started
+    enabled: yes
+    name: memcached
+  tags:
+  - mote
+
 - name: replace the mote configuration file by the one with the normal user
   template: src={{ item.file }}
             dest="{{ item.location }}/{{ item.file }}"
diff --git a/roles/mote/templates/config.py b/roles/mote/templates/config.py
index ab43901cb0..1419da42f8 100644
--- a/roles/mote/templates/config.py
+++ b/roles/mote/templates/config.py
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ General Configuration
 admin_groups = ["sysadmin-mote"]
 
 # memcached must be installed for this feature
-memcached_ip = "memcached01:11211"
-use_memcached = False # Use a memcached store for greater performance
+memcached_ip = "unix:/var/run/memcached/memcached.sock"
+use_memcached = True # Use a memcached store for greater performance
 
 # JSON cache store location
 json_cache_location = "/var/cache/httpd/mote/cache.json"