diff --git a/configs/development.ini b/configs/development.ini
--- a/configs/development.ini
+++ b/configs/development.ini
@@ -26,6 +26,14 @@ locale = en_US.UTF-8
 ## at installation time, e.g /home/user/vcsserver-1/profile/bin
 core.binary_dir = ""
 
+## custom exception store path, defaults to TMPDIR
+exception_store_path =
+
+## Default cache dir for caches.  Putting this into a ramdisk
+## can boost performance, eg. /tmpfs/data_ramdisk, however this directory might require
+## large ammount of space
+cache_dir = %(here)s/rcdev/data
+
 ## cache region for storing repo_objects cache
 rc_cache.repo_object.backend = dogpile.cache.rc.memory_lru
 ## cache auto-expires after N seconds
diff --git a/configs/production.ini b/configs/production.ini
--- a/configs/production.ini
+++ b/configs/production.ini
@@ -47,6 +47,14 @@ locale = en_US.UTF-8
 ## at installation time, e.g /home/user/vcsserver-1/profile/bin
 core.binary_dir = ""
 
+## custom exception store path, defaults to TMPDIR
+exception_store_path =
+
+## Default cache dir for caches.  Putting this into a ramdisk
+## can boost performance, eg. /tmpfs/data_ramdisk, however this directory might require
+## large ammount of space
+cache_dir = %(here)s/rcdev/data
+
 ## cache region for storing repo_objects cache
 rc_cache.repo_object.backend = dogpile.cache.rc.memory_lru
 ## cache auto-expires after N seconds
diff --git a/vcsserver/__init__.py b/vcsserver/__init__.py
--- a/vcsserver/__init__.py
+++ b/vcsserver/__init__.py
@@ -19,3 +19,10 @@ import pkgutil
 
 
 __version__ = pkgutil.get_data('vcsserver', 'VERSION').strip()
+
+# link to config for pyramid
+CONFIG = {}
+
+# Populated with the settings dictionary from application init in
+#
+PYRAMID_SETTINGS = {}
diff --git a/vcsserver/http_main.py b/vcsserver/http_main.py
--- a/vcsserver/http_main.py
+++ b/vcsserver/http_main.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import logging
 import uuid
 import wsgiref.util
 import traceback
+import tempfile
 from itertools import chain
 
 import simplejson as json
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ except locale.Error as e:
         'LOCALE ERROR: failed to set LC_ALL, fallback to LC_ALL=C, org error: %s', e)
     os.environ['LC_ALL'] = 'C'
 
-
+import vcsserver
 from vcsserver import remote_wsgi, scm_app, settings, hgpatches
 from vcsserver.git_lfs.app import GIT_LFS_CONTENT_TYPE, GIT_LFS_PROTO_PAT
 from vcsserver.echo_stub import remote_wsgi as remote_wsgi_stub
@@ -73,8 +74,6 @@ except ImportError:
     SvnRemote = None
 
 
-
-
 def _is_request_chunked(environ):
     stream = environ.get('HTTP_TRANSFER_ENCODING', '') == 'chunked'
     return stream
@@ -82,6 +81,7 @@ def _is_request_chunked(environ):
 
 def _int_setting(settings, name, default):
     settings[name] = int(settings.get(name, default))
+    return settings[name]
 
 
 def _bool_setting(settings, name, default):
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ def _bool_setting(settings, name, defaul
     if isinstance(input_val, unicode):
         input_val = input_val.encode('utf8')
     settings[name] = asbool(input_val)
+    return settings[name]
 
 
 def _list_setting(settings, name, default):
@@ -96,13 +97,20 @@ def _list_setting(settings, name, defaul
 
     # Otherwise we assume it uses pyramids space/newline separation.
     settings[name] = aslist(raw_value)
+    return settings[name]
 
 
-def _string_setting(settings, name, default, lower=True):
+def _string_setting(settings, name, default, lower=True, default_when_empty=False):
     value = settings.get(name, default)
+
+    if default_when_empty and not value:
+        # use default value when value is empty
+        value = default
+
     if lower:
         value = value.lower()
     settings[name] = value
+    return settings[name]
 
 
 class VCS(object):
@@ -214,13 +222,17 @@ class HTTPApplication(object):
             self._use_echo_app = True
             log.warning("Using EchoApp for VCS operations.")
             self.remote_wsgi = remote_wsgi_stub
-        self._configure_settings(settings)
+
+        self._configure_settings(global_config, settings)
         self._configure()
 
-    def _configure_settings(self, app_settings):
+    def _configure_settings(self, global_config, app_settings):
         """
         Configure the settings module.
         """
+        settings_merged = global_config.copy()
+        settings_merged.update(app_settings)
+
         git_path = app_settings.get('git_path', None)
         if git_path:
             settings.GIT_EXECUTABLE = git_path
@@ -228,7 +240,30 @@ class HTTPApplication(object):
         if binary_dir:
             settings.BINARY_DIR = binary_dir
 
+        # Store the settings to make them available to other modules.
+        vcsserver.PYRAMID_SETTINGS = settings_merged
+        vcsserver.CONFIG = settings_merged
+
     def _sanitize_settings_and_apply_defaults(self, settings):
+
+        default_cache_dir = os.path.join(tempfile.gettempdir(), 'rc_cache')
+
+        # save default, cache dir, and use it for all backends later.
+        default_cache_dir = _string_setting(
+            settings,
+            'cache_dir',
+            default_cache_dir, lower=False, default_when_empty=True)
+
+        # ensure we have our dir created
+        if not os.path.isdir(default_cache_dir):
+            os.makedirs(default_cache_dir, mode=0755)
+
+        # exception store cache
+        _string_setting(
+            settings,
+            'exception_store_path',
+            default_cache_dir, lower=False)
+
         # repo_object cache
         _string_setting(
             settings,
diff --git a/vcsserver/lib/exc_tracking.py b/vcsserver/lib/exc_tracking.py
--- a/vcsserver/lib/exc_tracking.py
+++ b/vcsserver/lib/exc_tracking.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 # NOTE: Any changes should be synced with exc_tracking at rhodecode.lib.exc_tracking
 global_prefix = 'vcsserver'
+exc_store_dir_name = 'rc_exception_store_v1'
 
 
 def exc_serialize(exc_id, tb, exc_type):
@@ -54,13 +55,10 @@ def get_exc_store():
     """
     Get and create exception store if it's not existing
     """
-    exc_store_dir = 'rc_exception_store_v1'
-    # fallback
-    _exc_store_path = os.path.join(tempfile.gettempdir(), exc_store_dir)
+    import vcsserver as app
 
-    exc_store_dir = ''  # TODO: need a persistent cross instance store here
-    if exc_store_dir:
-        _exc_store_path = os.path.join(exc_store_dir, exc_store_dir)
+    exc_store_dir = app.CONFIG.get('exception_store_path', '') or tempfile.gettempdir()
+    _exc_store_path = os.path.join(exc_store_dir, exc_store_dir_name)
 
     _exc_store_path = os.path.abspath(_exc_store_path)
     if not os.path.isdir(_exc_store_path):
@@ -87,6 +85,13 @@ def _store_exception(exc_id, exc_info, p
 
 
 def store_exception(exc_id, exc_info, prefix=global_prefix):
+    """
+    Example usage::
+
+        exc_info = sys.exc_info()
+        store_exception(id(exc_info), exc_info)
+    """
+
     try:
         _store_exception(exc_id=exc_id, exc_info=exc_info, prefix=prefix)
     except Exception:
diff --git a/vcsserver/tests/test_main_http.py b/vcsserver/tests/test_main_http.py
--- a/vcsserver/tests/test_main_http.py
+++ b/vcsserver/tests/test_main_http.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ from vcsserver.base import obfuscate_qs
 @mock.patch('vcsserver.http_main.VCS', mock.Mock())
 @mock.patch('vcsserver.hgpatches.patch_largefiles_capabilities')
 def test_applies_largefiles_patch(patch_largefiles_capabilities):
-    http_main.main([])
+    http_main.main({})
     patch_largefiles_capabilities.assert_called_once_with()
 
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def test_applies_largefiles_patch(patch_
     'vcsserver.hgpatches.patch_largefiles_capabilities',
     mock.Mock(side_effect=Exception("Must not be called")))
 def test_applies_largefiles_patch_only_if_mercurial_is_available():
-    http_main.main([])
+    http_main.main({})
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('given, expected', [