diff --git a/src/debug.c b/src/debug.c
index b7127979..cd3a22a9 100644
--- a/src/debug.c
+++ b/src/debug.c
@@ -332,9 +332,14 @@ void debugCommand(redisClient *c) {
 
         usleep(utime);
         addReply(c,shared.ok);
+    } else if (!strcasecmp(c->argv[1]->ptr,"set-active-expire") &&
+               c->argc == 3)
+    {
+        server.active_expire_enabled = atoi(c->argv[2]->ptr);
+        addReply(c,shared.ok);
     } else {
-        addReplyError(c,
-            "Syntax error, try DEBUG [SEGFAULT|OBJECT <key>|SWAPIN <key>|SWAPOUT <key>|RELOAD]");
+        addReplyErrorFormat(c, "Unknown DEBUG subcommand '%s'",
+            (char*)c->argv[1]->ptr);
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/redis.c b/src/redis.c
index 07940011..dcb2499d 100644
--- a/src/redis.c
+++ b/src/redis.c
@@ -854,7 +854,8 @@ void clientsCron(void) {
 void databasesCron(void) {
     /* Expire keys by random sampling. Not required for slaves
      * as master will synthesize DELs for us. */
-    if (server.masterhost == NULL) activeExpireCycle();
+    if (server.active_expire_enabled && server.masterhost == NULL)
+        activeExpireCycle();
 
     /* Perform hash tables rehashing if needed, but only if there are no
      * other processes saving the DB on disk. Otherwise rehashing is bad
@@ -1203,6 +1204,7 @@ void initServerConfig() {
     server.verbosity = REDIS_NOTICE;
     server.maxidletime = REDIS_MAXIDLETIME;
     server.tcpkeepalive = 0;
+    server.active_expire_enabled = 1;
     server.client_max_querybuf_len = REDIS_MAX_QUERYBUF_LEN;
     server.saveparams = NULL;
     server.loading = 0;
diff --git a/src/redis.h b/src/redis.h
index fc6eb95c..a5ffa930 100644
--- a/src/redis.h
+++ b/src/redis.h
@@ -728,6 +728,7 @@ struct redisServer {
     int verbosity;                  /* Loglevel in redis.conf */
     int maxidletime;                /* Client timeout in seconds */
     int tcpkeepalive;               /* Set SO_KEEPALIVE if non-zero. */
+    int active_expire_enabled;      /* Can be disabled for testing purposes. */
     size_t client_max_querybuf_len; /* Limit for client query buffer length */
     int dbnum;                      /* Total number of configured DBs */
     int daemonize;                  /* True if running as a daemon */