diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
index 8287a14..faa48cb 100644
--- a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
@@ -60,15 +60,13 @@ ADD patch/easyrdf.patch /patch/easyrdf.patch
 # Add wisski configuration
 ADD conf/ports.conf /etc/apache2/ports.conf
 ADD conf/wisski.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/wisski.conf
+ADD conf/wisski.ini /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/wisski.ini
 RUN a2ensite wisski
 
 # volumes for composer
 VOLUME /var/www/.composer
 VOLUME /var/www/data
 
-# increase the php memory limit to 4g
-RUN echo 'memory_limit=4G' > /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/memory-limit.ini
-
 # Add and configure the entrypoint
 ADD scripts/entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
 ENTRYPOINT [ "/entrypoint.sh" ]
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/conf/wisski.ini b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/conf/wisski.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bed4795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/conf/wisski.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+; File Uploads up to 250 MB
+; Seems to be reasonable compromise between the default (2MB) and maximum available space
+file_uploads = On
+upload_max_filesize = 250M
+post_max_size = 250M
+
+; Composer uses an absurd amount of memory
+; 4GB ought to be enough
+memory_limit = 4G
+
+; If execution time turns out to be a problem
+; we should uncomment this 
+; max_execution_time = 600
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/web/docker-compose.yml b/distillery/resources/compose/web/docker-compose.yml
index b4bb7ce..0b7c99d 100644
--- a/distillery/resources/compose/web/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/web/docker-compose.yml
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ services:
       - "443:443"
     volumes:
       - "vhost:/etc/nginx/vhost.d"
+      - "./global.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/global.conf:ro"
       - "htpasswd:/etc/nginx/htpasswd"
       - "html:/usr/share/nginx/html"
       - "/var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro"
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/web/global.conf b/distillery/resources/compose/web/global.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f814838
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/web/global.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# update the max body size to fit with php's configuration. 
+# should be kept in sync with distillery/resources/compose/barrel/conf/wisski.ini. 
+client_max_body_size 250m;
\ No newline at end of file