diff --git a/bin/spark-daemon.sh b/bin/spark-daemon.sh
index 0c584055c794685255450b041ab6a8c7b9d9b893..d7dc62ab0816288bbb29b5a66a1f62221dfd5da5 100755
--- a/bin/spark-daemon.sh
+++ b/bin/spark-daemon.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 #   SPARK_NICENESS The scheduling priority for daemons. Defaults to 0.
 ##
 
-usage="Usage: spark-daemon.sh [--config <conf-dir>] [--hosts hostlistfile] (start|stop) <spark-command> <args...>"
+usage="Usage: spark-daemon.sh [--config <conf-dir>] [--hosts hostlistfile] (start|stop) <spark-command> <spark-instance-number> <args...>"
 
 # if no args specified, show usage
 if [ $# -le 1 ]; then
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ startStop=$1
 shift
 command=$1
 shift
+instance=$1
+shift
 
 spark_rotate_log ()
 {
@@ -95,7 +97,7 @@ fi
 export SPARK_LOGFILE=spark-$SPARK_IDENT_STRING-$command-$HOSTNAME.log
 export SPARK_ROOT_LOGGER="INFO,DRFA"
 log=$SPARK_LOG_DIR/spark-$SPARK_IDENT_STRING-$command-$HOSTNAME.out
-pid=$SPARK_PID_DIR/spark-$SPARK_IDENT_STRING-$command.pid
+pid=$SPARK_PID_DIR/spark-$SPARK_IDENT_STRING-$command-$instance.pid
 
 # Set default scheduling priority
 if [ "$SPARK_NICENESS" = "" ]; then
diff --git a/bin/spark-daemons.sh b/bin/spark-daemons.sh
index 4f9719ee809e800bef0055681a433b350a6ca2b4..0619097e4dc3a512920e8f70b0cbffe2ab75c3d3 100755
--- a/bin/spark-daemons.sh
+++ b/bin/spark-daemons.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 # Run a Spark command on all slave hosts.
 
-usage="Usage: spark-daemons.sh [--config confdir] [--hosts hostlistfile] [start|stop] command args..."
+usage="Usage: spark-daemons.sh [--config confdir] [--hosts hostlistfile] [start|stop] command instance-number args..."
 
 # if no args specified, show usage
 if [ $# -le 1 ]; then
diff --git a/bin/start-master.sh b/bin/start-master.sh
index 87feb261fe86bb498eedcf40c1d98b3773cf3576..83a3e1f3dc1a3caa04b83d60d9dd78f506db583c 100755
--- a/bin/start-master.sh
+++ b/bin/start-master.sh
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ if [ "$SPARK_PUBLIC_DNS" = "" ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh start spark.deploy.master.Master --ip $SPARK_MASTER_IP --port $SPARK_MASTER_PORT --webui-port $SPARK_MASTER_WEBUI_PORT
+"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh start spark.deploy.master.Master 1 --ip $SPARK_MASTER_IP --port $SPARK_MASTER_PORT --webui-port $SPARK_MASTER_WEBUI_PORT
diff --git a/bin/start-slave.sh b/bin/start-slave.sh
index 45a0cf7a6b7ac526fb0651e6a3f12f4cbfca8b51..616c76e4ee6e01eecbcfaf241ec87bd7e9dc9554 100755
--- a/bin/start-slave.sh
+++ b/bin/start-slave.sh
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@ if [ "$SPARK_PUBLIC_DNS" = "" ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh start spark.deploy.worker.Worker $1
+"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh start spark.deploy.worker.Worker "$@"
diff --git a/bin/start-slaves.sh b/bin/start-slaves.sh
index 390247ca4aa4916e0f53b001c6cb3927df02da65..4e05224190e3b5edd17d173578691fca03dd51fa 100755
--- a/bin/start-slaves.sh
+++ b/bin/start-slaves.sh
@@ -21,4 +21,13 @@ fi
 echo "Master IP: $SPARK_MASTER_IP"
 
 # Launch the slaves
-exec "$bin/slaves.sh" cd "$SPARK_HOME" \; "$bin/start-slave.sh" spark://$SPARK_MASTER_IP:$SPARK_MASTER_PORT
+if [ "$SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES" = "" ]; then
+  exec "$bin/slaves.sh" cd "$SPARK_HOME" \; "$bin/start-slave.sh" 1 spark://$SPARK_MASTER_IP:$SPARK_MASTER_PORT
+else
+  if [ "$SPARK_WORKER_WEBUI_PORT" = "" ]; then
+    SPARK_WORKER_WEBUI_PORT=8081
+  fi
+  for ((i=0; i<$SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES; i++)); do
+    "$bin/slaves.sh" cd "$SPARK_HOME" \; "$bin/start-slave.sh" $(( $i + 1 ))  spark://$SPARK_MASTER_IP:$SPARK_MASTER_PORT --webui-port $(( $SPARK_WORKER_WEBUI_PORT + $i ))
+  done
+fi
diff --git a/bin/stop-master.sh b/bin/stop-master.sh
index f75167dd2c72d9352140b47d6ae074850364a0c2..172ee5891d17f6d6fb76c9ff12c258ca14edcbff 100755
--- a/bin/stop-master.sh
+++ b/bin/stop-master.sh
@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@ bin=`cd "$bin"; pwd`
 
 . "$bin/spark-config.sh"
 
-"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh stop spark.deploy.master.Master
\ No newline at end of file
+"$bin"/spark-daemon.sh stop spark.deploy.master.Master 1
diff --git a/bin/stop-slaves.sh b/bin/stop-slaves.sh
index 21c9ebf324fdc69f6ab1680a75f8b5ed198d28ab..fbfc594472fe7522c30a6989e171aa4fa3396c7f 100755
--- a/bin/stop-slaves.sh
+++ b/bin/stop-slaves.sh
@@ -7,4 +7,14 @@ bin=`cd "$bin"; pwd`
 
 . "$bin/spark-config.sh"
 
-"$bin"/spark-daemons.sh stop spark.deploy.worker.Worker
\ No newline at end of file
+if [ -f "${SPARK_CONF_DIR}/spark-env.sh" ]; then
+  . "${SPARK_CONF_DIR}/spark-env.sh"
+fi
+
+if [ "$SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES" = "" ]; then
+  "$bin"/spark-daemons.sh stop spark.deploy.worker.Worker 1
+else
+  for ((i=0; i<$SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES; i++)); do
+    "$bin"/spark-daemons.sh stop spark.deploy.worker.Worker $(( $i + 1 ))
+  done
+fi
diff --git a/conf/spark-env.sh.template b/conf/spark-env.sh.template
index 6d71ec56914c3e1fa418ff069e1dbaa372bd6db2..37565ca827980d3d2b48312dfa30bb9d3fd10cea 100755
--- a/conf/spark-env.sh.template
+++ b/conf/spark-env.sh.template
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 # - SPARK_WORKER_CORES, to set the number of cores to use on this machine
 # - SPARK_WORKER_MEMORY, to set how much memory to use (e.g. 1000m, 2g)
 # - SPARK_WORKER_PORT / SPARK_WORKER_WEBUI_PORT
+# - SPARK_WORKER_INSTANCES, to set the number of worker instances/processes to be spawned on every slave machine
 #
 # Finally, Spark also relies on the following variables, but these can be set
 # on just the *master* (i.e. in your driver program), and will automatically