diff --git a/src/addons.js b/src/addons.js
index 5389fe332..02096f48a 100644
--- a/src/addons.js
+++ b/src/addons.js
@@ -819,12 +819,7 @@ function updateServiceConfig(platformConfig, callback) {
             memorySwap = memory * 2;
         }
 
-        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);
+        docker.update(serviceName, memory, memorySwap, iteratorCallback);
     }, callback);
 }
 
@@ -846,8 +841,7 @@ function updateAppServiceConfig(name, instance, servicesConfig, callback) {
         memorySwap = memory * 2;
     }
 
-    const args = `update --memory ${memory} --memory-swap ${memorySwap} ${name}-${instance}`.split(' ');
-    shell.spawn(`updateAppServiceConfig${name}`, '/usr/bin/docker', args, { }, callback);
+    docker.update(`${name}-${instance}`, memory, memorySwap, callback);
 }
 
 function startServices(existingInfra, callback) {
diff --git a/src/docker.js b/src/docker.js
index 1876caa2d..24d3ee53e 100644
--- a/src/docker.js
+++ b/src/docker.js
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ exports = module.exports = {
     memoryUsage,
     createVolume,
     removeVolume,
-    clearVolume
+    clearVolume,
+    update
 };
 
 var addons = require('./addons.js'),
@@ -699,3 +700,17 @@ function info(callback) {
         callback(null, result);
     });
 }
+
+function update(name, memory, memorySwap, callback) {
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof name, 'string');
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof memory, 'number');
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof memorySwap, 'number');
+    assert.strictEqual(typeof callback, 'function');
+
+    const args = `update --memory ${memory} --memory-swap ${memorySwap} ${name}`.split(' ');
+    // scale back db containers, if possible. this is retried because updating memory constraints can fail
+    // with failed to write to memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: write /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/xx/memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: device or resource busy
+    async.retry({ times: 10, interval: 60 * 1000 }, function (retryCallback) {
+        shell.spawn(`update(${name})`, '/usr/bin/docker', args, { }, retryCallback);
+    }, callback);
+}