diff --git a/asterix-app/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/hyracks/bootstrap/NCApplicationEntryPoint.java b/asterix-app/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/hyracks/bootstrap/NCApplicationEntryPoint.java
index 8d38b56..f332155 100644
--- a/asterix-app/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/hyracks/bootstrap/NCApplicationEntryPoint.java
+++ b/asterix-app/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/hyracks/bootstrap/NCApplicationEntryPoint.java
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 	@Override
 	public void stop() throws Exception {
 		if (!stopInitiated) {
+		    runtimeContext.setShuttingdown(true);
 			stopInitiated = true;
 			if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) {
 				LOGGER.info("Stopping Asterix node controller: " + nodeId);
diff --git a/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/AsterixAppRuntimeContext.java b/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/AsterixAppRuntimeContext.java
index 21aa203..5070938 100644
--- a/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/AsterixAppRuntimeContext.java
+++ b/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/AsterixAppRuntimeContext.java
@@ -14,14 +14,15 @@
 import edu.uci.ics.asterix.transaction.management.service.recovery.IAsterixAppRuntimeContextProvider;
 import edu.uci.ics.asterix.transaction.management.service.transaction.TransactionSubsystem;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.application.INCApplicationContext;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.exceptions.HyracksDataException;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.io.IIOManager;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.common.api.IIndex;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.common.api.IIndexLifecycleManager;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.common.dataflow.IndexLifecycleManager;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMIOOperationCallbackProvider;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMIOOperationScheduler;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMMergePolicy;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMOperationTrackerFactory;
-import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.impls.ConstantMergePolicy;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.impls.SynchronousScheduler;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.common.buffercache.BufferCache;
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.common.buffercache.ClockPageReplacementStrategy;
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@
     private PersistentLocalResourceRepository localResourceRepository;
     private ResourceIdFactory resourceIdFactory;
     private IIOManager ioManager;
+    private boolean isShuttingdown;
 
     public AsterixAppRuntimeContext(INCApplicationContext ncApplicationContext) {
         this.ncApplicationContext = ncApplicationContext;
@@ -79,7 +81,7 @@
                 DEFAULT_MAX_OPEN_FILES);
 
         lsmIOScheduler = SynchronousScheduler.INSTANCE;
-        mergePolicy = new ConstantMergePolicy(3);
+        mergePolicy = new ConstantMergePolicy(3, this);
         lsmBTreeOpTrackerFactory = new IndexOperationTrackerFactory(LSMBTreeIOOperationCallbackFactory.INSTANCE);
         lsmRTreeOpTrackerFactory = new IndexOperationTrackerFactory(LSMRTreeIOOperationCallbackFactory.INSTANCE);
         lsmInvertedIndexOpTrackerFactory = new IndexOperationTrackerFactory(
@@ -90,6 +92,15 @@
         localResourceRepository = (PersistentLocalResourceRepository) persistentLocalResourceRepositoryFactory
                 .createRepository();
         resourceIdFactory = (new ResourceIdFactoryProvider(localResourceRepository)).createResourceIdFactory();
+        isShuttingdown = false;
+    }
+
+    public boolean isShuttingdown() {
+        return isShuttingdown;
+    }
+
+    public void setShuttingdown(boolean isShuttingdown) {
+        this.isShuttingdown = isShuttingdown;
     }
 
     private int getBufferCachePageSize() {
@@ -135,8 +146,11 @@
         return numPages;
     }
 
-    public void deinitialize() {
+    public void deinitialize() throws HyracksDataException {
         bufferCache.close();
+        for (IIndex index : indexLifecycleManager.getOpenIndexes()) {
+            index.deactivate();
+        }
     }
 
     public IBufferCache getBufferCache() {
diff --git a/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/ConstantMergePolicy.java b/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/ConstantMergePolicy.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74b0aa6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterix-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/asterix/common/context/ConstantMergePolicy.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2009-2012 by The Regents of the University of California
+ * Licensed 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 from
+ * 
+ *     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 edu.uci.ics.asterix.common.context;
+
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.exceptions.HyracksDataException;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.common.api.IndexException;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.common.impls.NoOpOperationCallback;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMIndex;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMIndexAccessor;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.api.ILSMMergePolicy;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.storage.am.lsm.common.impls.NoOpIOOperationCallback;
+
+public class ConstantMergePolicy implements ILSMMergePolicy {
+
+    private final int threshold;
+    private final AsterixAppRuntimeContext ctx;
+
+    public ConstantMergePolicy(int threshold, AsterixAppRuntimeContext ctx) {
+        this.threshold = threshold;
+        this.ctx = ctx;
+    }
+
+    public void diskComponentAdded(final ILSMIndex index, int totalNumDiskComponents) throws HyracksDataException,
+            IndexException {
+        if (!ctx.isShuttingdown() && totalNumDiskComponents >= threshold) {
+            ILSMIndexAccessor accessor = (ILSMIndexAccessor) index.createAccessor(NoOpOperationCallback.INSTANCE,
+                    NoOpOperationCallback.INSTANCE);
+            accessor.scheduleMerge(NoOpIOOperationCallback.INSTANCE);
+        }
+    }
+}