diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index f40a0b936..67773e3aa 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -2101,4 +2101,5 @@
 * Fix install issue where `/dev/dri` may not be present
 * import: when importing filesystem backups, the input box is a path
 * firewall: fix race condition where blocklist was not added in correct position in the FORWARD chain
+* services: fix issue where services where scaled up/down too fast
 
diff --git a/src/addons.js b/src/addons.js
index e896e438f..38d56a571 100644
--- a/src/addons.js
+++ b/src/addons.js
@@ -798,7 +798,8 @@ function exportDatabase(addon, callback) {
 }
 
 function updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, callback) {
-    callback = callback || NOOP_CALLBACK;
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof platformConfig, 'object');
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof callback, 'function');
 
     async.eachSeries([ 'mysql', 'postgresql', 'mail', 'mongodb', 'graphite' ], function iterator(serviceName, iteratorCallback) {
         const containerConfig = platformConfig[serviceName];
@@ -812,6 +813,8 @@ function updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, callback) {
         }
 
         const args = `update --memory ${memory} --memory-swap ${memorySwap} ${serviceName}`.split(' ');
+        // scale back db containers, if possible. this is retried because updating memory constraints can fail
+        // with failed to write to memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: write /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/xx/memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: device or resource busy
         async.retry({ times: 10, interval: 60 * 1000 }, function (retryCallback) {
             shell.spawn(`updateServiceConfig(${serviceName})`, '/usr/bin/docker', args, { }, retryCallback);
         }, iteratorCallback);
diff --git a/src/platform.js b/src/platform.js
index 01927b5fe..21e5691b9 100644
--- a/src/platform.js
+++ b/src/platform.js
@@ -90,20 +90,11 @@ function onPlatformReady(infraChanged) {
 }
 
 function applyPlatformConfig(callback) {
-    // scale back db containers, if possible. this is retried because updating memory constraints can fail
-    // with failed to write to memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: write /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/xx/memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: device or resource busy
+    settings.getPlatformConfig(function (error, platformConfig) {
+        if (error) return callback(error);
 
-    async.retry({ times: 10, interval: 5 * 60 * 1000 }, function (retryCallback) {
-        settings.getPlatformConfig(function (error, platformConfig) {
-            if (error) return retryCallback(error);
-
-            addons.updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, function (error) {
-                if (error) debug('Error updating services. Will rety in 5 minutes', platformConfig, error);
-
-                retryCallback(error);
-            });
-        });
-    }, callback);
+        addons.updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, callback);
+    });
 }
 
 function pruneInfraImages(callback) {
diff --git a/src/settings.js b/src/settings.js
index c099189d9..71deb0724 100644
--- a/src/settings.js
+++ b/src/settings.js
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ exports = module.exports = {
     _setApiServerOrigin: setApiServerOrigin
 };
 
+const NOOP_CALLBACK = function (error) { if (error) debug(error); };
+
 var addons = require('./addons.js'),
     assert = require('assert'),
     backups = require('./backups.js'),
@@ -452,7 +454,7 @@ function setPlatformConfig(platformConfig, callback) {
 
         callback(null); // updating service config can take a while
 
-        addons.updateServiceConfig(platformConfig);
+        addons.updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, NOOP_CALLBACK);
     });
 }