diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration.xml
index 8a96882..b7103dd 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration.xml
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration.xml
@@ -77,8 +77,7 @@
     <name>storage.buffercache.size</name>
     <value>48MB</value>
     <description>The size of memory allocated to the disk buffer cache.
-      The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size
-      (Default = "512MB")
+      The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size.
     </description>
   </property>
   <property>
@@ -88,7 +87,14 @@
       This budget is shared by all the memory components of the primary
       index and all its secondary indexes across all I/O devices on a node.
       Note: in-memory components usually has fill factor of 75% since
-      the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized. (Default = 256)
+      the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized.
+    </description>
+  </property>
+  <property>
+    <name>storage.memorycomponent.globalbudget</name>
+    <value>512MB</value>
+    <description>The size of memory allocated to the memory components.
+      The value should be a multiple of the memory component page size.
     </description>
   </property>
   <property>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration2.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration2.xml
index 2989fa9..c5b8470 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration2.xml
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration2.xml
@@ -81,8 +81,7 @@
         <name>storage.buffercache.size</name>
         <value>48MB</value>
         <description>The size of memory allocated to the disk buffer cache.
-            The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size
-            (Default = "512MB")
+            The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size.
         </description>
     </property>
     <property>
@@ -92,7 +91,14 @@
             This budget is shared by all the memory components of the primary
             index and all its secondary indexes across all I/O devices on a node.
             Note: in-memory components usually has fill factor of 75% since
-            the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized. (Default = 256)
+            the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized.
+        </description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>storage.memorycomponent.globalbudget</name>
+        <value>512MB</value>
+        <description>The size of memory allocated to the memory components.
+            The value should be a multiple of the memory component page size.
         </description>
     </property>
     <property>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration3.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration3.xml
index 85881f9..73a8ea8 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration3.xml
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration3.xml
@@ -81,8 +81,7 @@
         <name>storage.buffercache.size</name>
         <value>48MB</value>
         <description>The size of memory allocated to the disk buffer cache.
-            The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size
-            (Default = "512MB")
+            The value should be a multiple of the buffer cache page size.
         </description>
     </property>
     <property>
@@ -92,7 +91,14 @@
             This budget is shared by all the memory components of the primary
             index and all its secondary indexes across all I/O devices on a node.
             Note: in-memory components usually has fill factor of 75% since
-            the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized. (Default = 256)
+            the pages are 75% full and the remaining 25% is un-utilized.
+        </description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>storage.memorycomponent.globalbudget</name>
+        <value>512MB</value>
+        <description>The size of memory allocated to the memory components.
+            The value should be a multiple of the memory component page size.
         </description>
     </property>
     <property>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration4.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration4.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7bb7fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/resources/asterix-build-configuration4.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+<!--
+ ! Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ ! or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ ! distributed with this work for additional information
+ ! regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ ! to you 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.
+ !-->
+<asterixConfiguration xmlns="asterixconf">
+    <metadataNode>asterix_nc1</metadataNode>
+    <store>
+        <ncId>asterix_nc1</ncId>
+        <storeDirs>iodevice0,iodevice1</storeDirs>
+    </store>
+    <store>
+        <ncId>asterix_nc2</ncId>
+        <storeDirs>iodevice0,iodevice1</storeDirs>
+    </store>
+    <transactionLogDir>
+        <ncId>asterix_nc1</ncId>
+        <txnLogDirPath>target/txnLogDir/asterix_nc1</txnLogDirPath>
+    </transactionLogDir>
+    <transactionLogDir>
+        <ncId>asterix_nc2</ncId>
+        <txnLogDirPath>target/txnLogDir/asterix_nc2</txnLogDirPath>
+    </transactionLogDir>
+
+    <property>
+        <name>max.wait.active.cluster</name>
+        <value>60</value>
+        <description>Maximum wait (in seconds) for a cluster to be ACTIVE (all
+            nodes are available)
+            before a submitted query/statement can be
+            executed. (Default = 60 seconds)
+        </description>
+    </property>
+
+    <property>
+        <name>log.level</name>
+        <value>INFO</value>
+        <description>Log level for running tests/build</description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>compiler.framesize</name>
+        <value>32KB</value>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>compiler.sortmemory</name>
+        <value>320KB</value>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>compiler.groupmemory</name>
+        <value>160KB</value>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>compiler.joinmemory</name>
+        <value>256KB</value>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>compiler.parallelism</name>
+        <value>-1</value>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>storage.buffercache.pagesize</name>
+        <value>32KB</value>
+        <description>The page size in bytes for pages in the buffer cache.
+            (Default = "128KB")
+        </description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>plot.activate</name>
+        <value>false</value>
+        <description>Enabling plot of Algebricks plan to tmp folder. (Default = false)
+        </description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>messaging.frame.size</name>
+        <value>4096</value>
+        <description>The frame size to be used for NC to NC messaging. (Default = 4kb)
+        </description>
+    </property>
+    <property>
+        <name>messaging.frame.count</name>
+        <value>512</value>
+        <description>Number of reusable frames for NC to NC messaging. (Default = 512)
+        </description>
+    </property>
+</asterixConfiguration>
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/runtime/ClusterStateDefaultParameterTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/runtime/ClusterStateDefaultParameterTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3defc40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/runtime/ClusterStateDefaultParameterTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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 org.apache.asterix.test.runtime;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.util.Collection;
+
+import org.apache.asterix.common.config.StorageProperties;
+import org.apache.asterix.testframework.context.TestCaseContext;
+import org.json.JSONObject;
+import org.junit.AfterClass;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+import org.junit.runners.Parameterized;
+import org.junit.runners.Parameterized.Parameters;
+import org.mortbay.util.ajax.JSON;
+
+/**
+ * Runs the cluster state runtime tests with the storage parallelism.
+ */
+@RunWith(Parameterized.class)
+public class ClusterStateDefaultParameterTest {
+    protected static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "asterix-build-configuration4.xml";
+
+    @BeforeClass
+    public static void setUp() throws Exception {
+        LangExecutionUtil.setUp(TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME);
+    }
+
+    @AfterClass
+    public static void tearDown() throws Exception {
+        LangExecutionUtil.tearDown();
+    }
+
+    @Parameters(name = "ClusterStateExecutionTest {index}: {0}")
+    public static Collection<Object[]> tests() throws Exception {
+        return LangExecutionUtil.tests("only_cluster_state.xml", "cluster_state.xml");
+    }
+
+    protected TestCaseContext tcCtx;
+
+    public ClusterStateDefaultParameterTest(TestCaseContext tcCtx) {
+        this.tcCtx = tcCtx;
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void test() throws Exception {
+        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
+        URL url = new URL("http://localhost:19002/admin/cluster");
+        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+        conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
+        BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream()));
+        String line;
+        while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {
+            result.append(line);
+        }
+        rd.close();
+        long maxHeap = Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory();
+        int matchCount = 0;
+        String[] rows = result.toString().split(",");
+        for (String row : rows) {
+            if (row.contains("storage.buffercache.size")) {
+                Assert.assertTrue(getValue(row) == maxHeap / 4);
+                matchCount++;
+            }
+            if (row.contains("storage.memorycomponent.globalbudget")) {
+                Assert.assertTrue(getValue(row) == maxHeap / 4);
+                matchCount++;
+            }
+            if (row.contains("storage.memorycomponent.numpages")) {
+                Assert.assertTrue(getValue(row) == maxHeap / (131072 * 64));
+                matchCount++;
+            }
+        }
+        Assert.assertTrue(matchCount == 3);
+    }
+
+    // Parses a long value parameter.
+    private long getValue(String row) {
+        String valueStr = row.split(":")[1].trim();
+        return Long.parseLong(valueStr);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/StorageProperties.java b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/StorageProperties.java
index b86d961..fbaf0a7 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/StorageProperties.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/config/StorageProperties.java
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
 import org.apache.hyracks.util.StorageUtil;
 
 import static org.apache.hyracks.util.StorageUtil.StorageUnit.KILOBYTE;
-import static org.apache.hyracks.util.StorageUtil.StorageUnit.MEGABYTE;
 
 public class StorageProperties extends AbstractProperties {
 
@@ -30,7 +29,6 @@
     private static final int STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_PAGESIZE_DEFAULT = StorageUtil.getSizeInBytes(128, KILOBYTE);
 
     private static final String STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_KEY = "storage.buffercache.size";
-    private static final long STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_DEFAULT = StorageUtil.getSizeInBytes(512, MEGABYTE);
 
     private static final String STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_MAXOPENFILES_KEY = "storage.buffercache.maxopenfiles";
     private static final int STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_MAXOPENFILES_DEFAULT = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
@@ -39,7 +37,6 @@
     private static final int STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_PAGESIZE_DEFAULT = StorageUtil.getSizeInBytes(128, KILOBYTE);
 
     private static final String STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_KEY = "storage.memorycomponent.numpages";
-    private static final int STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_DEFAULT = 256; // ... so 32MB components
 
     private static final String STORAGE_METADATA_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_KEY =
             "storage.metadata.memorycomponent.numpages";
@@ -49,14 +46,28 @@
     private static final int STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMCOMPONENTS_DEFAULT = 2; // 2 components
 
     private static final String STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_KEY = "storage.memorycomponent.globalbudget";
-    private static final long STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_DEFAULT = StorageUtil.getSizeInBytes(512, MEGABYTE);
 
     private static final String STORAGE_LSM_BLOOMFILTER_FALSEPOSITIVERATE_KEY =
             "storage.lsm.bloomfilter.falsepositiverate";
     private static final double STORAGE_LSM_BLOOMFILTER_FALSEPOSITIVERATE_DEFAULT = 0.01;
 
+    private final long storageBufferCacheSizeDefault;
+    private final int storageMemoryComponentNumPages;
+    private final long storageMemorycomponentGlobalbudgetDefault;
+
     public StorageProperties(PropertiesAccessor accessor) {
         super(accessor);
+
+        // Gets the -Xmx value for the JVM.
+        long maxHeapSize = Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory();
+        // By default, uses 1/4 of the maximum heap size for read cache, i.e., disk buffer cache.
+        storageBufferCacheSizeDefault = maxHeapSize / 4;
+        // By default, uses 1/4 of the maximum heap size for the write buffer, i.e., globalbudget for memory components.
+        storageMemorycomponentGlobalbudgetDefault = maxHeapSize / 4;
+        // By default, uses 1/16 of the storageMemorycomponentGlobalbudgetDefault for the write buffer budget
+        // for a dataset, including data and indexes.
+        storageMemoryComponentNumPages = (int) storageMemorycomponentGlobalbudgetDefault
+                / (16 * getMemoryComponentPageSize());
     }
 
     @PropertyKey(STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_PAGESIZE_KEY)
@@ -67,7 +78,7 @@
 
     @PropertyKey(STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_KEY)
     public long getBufferCacheSize() {
-        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_KEY, STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_DEFAULT,
+        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_BUFFERCACHE_SIZE_KEY, storageBufferCacheSizeDefault,
                 PropertyInterpreters.getLongBytePropertyInterpreter());
     }
 
@@ -89,7 +100,7 @@
 
     @PropertyKey(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_KEY)
     public int getMemoryComponentNumPages() {
-        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_KEY, STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_DEFAULT,
+        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_NUMPAGES_KEY, storageMemoryComponentNumPages,
                 PropertyInterpreters.getIntegerPropertyInterpreter());
     }
 
@@ -108,8 +119,8 @@
 
     @PropertyKey(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_KEY)
     public long getMemoryComponentGlobalBudget() {
-        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_KEY,
-                STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_DEFAULT, PropertyInterpreters.getLongBytePropertyInterpreter());
+        return accessor.getProperty(STORAGE_MEMORYCOMPONENT_GLOBALBUDGET_KEY, storageMemorycomponentGlobalbudgetDefault,
+                PropertyInterpreters.getLongBytePropertyInterpreter());
     }
 
     @PropertyKey(STORAGE_LSM_BLOOMFILTER_FALSEPOSITIVERATE_KEY)
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/pom.xml b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/pom.xml
index dfa1807..2f966a3 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/pom.xml
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/pom.xml
@@ -65,6 +65,17 @@
       <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
       <version>3.5</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.e-movimento.tinytools</groupId>
+      <artifactId>privilegedaccessor</artifactId>
+      <version>1.2.2</version>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>junit</groupId>
+      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
 </project>
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCService.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCService.java
index 8ca61ad..5a03d3c 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCService.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCService.java
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
 import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
+import java.lang.management.OperatingSystemMXBean;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import java.net.ServerSocket;
 import java.net.Socket;
@@ -72,6 +74,11 @@
      */
     private static Process proc = null;
 
+    /**
+     * The management bean for obtaining settings of the underlying operating system and hardware.
+     */
+    private static OperatingSystemMXBean osMXBean;
+
     private static List<String> buildCommand() throws IOException {
         List<String> cList = new ArrayList<>();
 
@@ -114,7 +121,8 @@
                 LOGGER.info("Using JAVA_OPTS from environment");
             } else {
                 LOGGER.info("Using default JAVA_OPTS");
-                jvmargs = "-Xmx1536m";
+                long ramSize = ((com.sun.management.OperatingSystemMXBean) osMXBean).getTotalPhysicalMemorySize();
+                jvmargs = "-Xmx" + (int) Math.ceil(0.6 * ramSize / (1024 * 1024)) + "m";
             }
         }
         env.put("JAVA_OPTS", jvmargs);
@@ -243,6 +251,9 @@
         }
         config.loadConfigAndApplyDefaults();
 
+        // Initializes the oxMXBean.
+        osMXBean = ManagementFactory.getOperatingSystemMXBean();
+
         // For now we implement a trivial listener which just
         // accepts an IP/port combination from the CC. This could
         // be made more advanced in several ways depending on whether
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCServiceTest.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCServiceTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00d7ca4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-control/hyracks-nc-service/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/control/nc/service/NCServiceTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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 org.apache.hyracks.control.nc.service;
+
+import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
+import java.lang.management.OperatingSystemMXBean;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import junit.extensions.PA;
+
+public class NCServiceTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testJvmArgs() {
+        Map<String, String> configuration = new HashMap<>();
+        OperatingSystemMXBean osMXBean = ManagementFactory.getOperatingSystemMXBean();
+        PA.setValue(NCService.class, "nodeSection", "nc/nc1");
+        PA.setValue(NCService.class, "osMXBean", osMXBean);
+        PA.invokeMethod(NCService.class, "configEnvironment(java.util.Map)", configuration);
+        String javaOpts = configuration.get("JAVA_OPTS");
+        String prefix = javaOpts.substring(4);
+        String sizeStr = prefix.substring(0, prefix.length() - 1);
+        int size = Integer.parseInt(sizeStr);
+        long ramSize = ((com.sun.management.OperatingSystemMXBean) osMXBean).getTotalPhysicalMemorySize();
+        int base = 1024 * 1024 * 5;
+        Assert.assertTrue(size == ramSize * 3 / base + ((ramSize * 3) % base == 0 ? 0 : 1));
+    }
+}