diff --git a/src/cluster.c b/src/cluster.c
index e87ca45a..57243132 100644
--- a/src/cluster.c
+++ b/src/cluster.c
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ void clusterInit(void) {
         exit(1);
     }
     if (aeCreateFileEvent(server.el, server.cfd, AE_READABLE,
-        clusterAcceptHandler, NULL) == AE_ERR) oom("creating file event");
+        clusterAcceptHandler, NULL) == AE_ERR) redisPanic("Unrecoverable error creating Redis Cluster file event.");
     server.cluster.slots_to_keys = zslCreate();
 }
 
diff --git a/src/debug.c b/src/debug.c
index e5686288..566b2b95 100644
--- a/src/debug.c
+++ b/src/debug.c
@@ -218,6 +218,10 @@ void computeDatasetDigest(unsigned char *final) {
 void debugCommand(redisClient *c) {
     if (!strcasecmp(c->argv[1]->ptr,"segfault")) {
         *((char*)-1) = 'x';
+    } else if (!strcasecmp(c->argv[1]->ptr,"oom")) {
+        void *ptr = zmalloc(ULONG_MAX); /* Should trigger an out of memory. */
+        zfree(ptr);
+        addReply(c,shared.ok);
     } else if (!strcasecmp(c->argv[1]->ptr,"assert")) {
         if (c->argc >= 3) c->argv[2] = tryObjectEncoding(c->argv[2]);
         redisAssertWithInfo(c,c->argv[0],1 == 2);
diff --git a/src/redis.c b/src/redis.c
index f2c5e2c7..92f1323b 100644
--- a/src/redis.c
+++ b/src/redis.c
@@ -334,17 +334,6 @@ err:
     if (server.logfile) close(fd);
 }
 
-/* Redis generally does not try to recover from out of memory conditions
- * when allocating objects or strings, it is not clear if it will be possible
- * to report this condition to the client since the networking layer itself
- * is based on heap allocation for send buffers, so we simply abort.
- * At least the code will be simpler to read... */
-void oom(const char *msg) {
-    redisLog(REDIS_WARNING, "%s: Out of memory\n",msg);
-    sleep(1);
-    abort();
-}
-
 /* Return the UNIX time in microseconds */
 long long ustime(void) {
     struct timeval tv;
@@ -1337,9 +1326,9 @@ void initServer() {
     server.stop_writes_on_bgsave_err = 1;
     aeCreateTimeEvent(server.el, 1, serverCron, NULL, NULL);
     if (server.ipfd > 0 && aeCreateFileEvent(server.el,server.ipfd,AE_READABLE,
-        acceptTcpHandler,NULL) == AE_ERR) oom("creating file event");
+        acceptTcpHandler,NULL) == AE_ERR) redisPanic("Unrecoverable error creating server.ipfd file event.");
     if (server.sofd > 0 && aeCreateFileEvent(server.el,server.sofd,AE_READABLE,
-        acceptUnixHandler,NULL) == AE_ERR) oom("creating file event");
+        acceptUnixHandler,NULL) == AE_ERR) redisPanic("Unrecoverable error creating server.sofd file event.");
 
     if (server.aof_state == REDIS_AOF_ON) {
         server.aof_fd = open(server.aof_filename,
@@ -2535,11 +2524,18 @@ void loadDataFromDisk(void) {
     }
 }
 
+void redisOutOfMemoryHandler(size_t allocation_size) {
+    redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Out Of Memory allocating %zu bytes!",
+        allocation_size);
+    redisPanic("OOM");
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     struct timeval tv;
 
     /* We need to initialize our libraries, and the server configuration. */
     zmalloc_enable_thread_safeness();
+    zmalloc_set_oom_handler(redisOutOfMemoryHandler);
     srand(time(NULL)^getpid());
     gettimeofday(&tv,NULL);
     dictSetHashFunctionSeed(tv.tv_sec^tv.tv_usec^getpid());
diff --git a/src/zmalloc.c b/src/zmalloc.c
index 79b56158..afa9fda8 100644
--- a/src/zmalloc.c
+++ b/src/zmalloc.c
@@ -109,17 +109,19 @@ static size_t used_memory = 0;
 static int zmalloc_thread_safe = 0;
 pthread_mutex_t used_memory_mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
 
-static void zmalloc_oom(size_t size) {
+static void zmalloc_default_oom(size_t size) {
     fprintf(stderr, "zmalloc: Out of memory trying to allocate %zu bytes\n",
         size);
     fflush(stderr);
     abort();
 }
 
+static void (*zmalloc_oom_handler)(size_t) = zmalloc_default_oom;
+
 void *zmalloc(size_t size) {
     void *ptr = malloc(size+PREFIX_SIZE);
 
-    if (!ptr) zmalloc_oom(size);
+    if (!ptr) zmalloc_oom_handler(size);
 #ifdef HAVE_MALLOC_SIZE
     update_zmalloc_stat_alloc(zmalloc_size(ptr),size);
     return ptr;
@@ -133,7 +135,7 @@ void *zmalloc(size_t size) {
 void *zcalloc(size_t size) {
     void *ptr = calloc(1, size+PREFIX_SIZE);
 
-    if (!ptr) zmalloc_oom(size);
+    if (!ptr) zmalloc_oom_handler(size);
 #ifdef HAVE_MALLOC_SIZE
     update_zmalloc_stat_alloc(zmalloc_size(ptr),size);
     return ptr;
@@ -155,7 +157,7 @@ void *zrealloc(void *ptr, size_t size) {
 #ifdef HAVE_MALLOC_SIZE
     oldsize = zmalloc_size(ptr);
     newptr = realloc(ptr,size);
-    if (!newptr) zmalloc_oom(size);
+    if (!newptr) zmalloc_oom_handler(size);
 
     update_zmalloc_stat_free(oldsize);
     update_zmalloc_stat_alloc(zmalloc_size(newptr),size);
@@ -236,6 +238,10 @@ void zmalloc_enable_thread_safeness(void) {
     zmalloc_thread_safe = 1;
 }
 
+void zmalloc_set_oom_handler(void (*oom_handler)(size_t)) {
+    zmalloc_oom_handler = oom_handler;
+}
+
 /* Get the RSS information in an OS-specific way.
  *
  * WARNING: the function zmalloc_get_rss() is not designed to be fast
diff --git a/src/zmalloc.h b/src/zmalloc.h
index 89f5b6ee..14e79534 100644
--- a/src/zmalloc.h
+++ b/src/zmalloc.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ void zfree(void *ptr);
 char *zstrdup(const char *s);
 size_t zmalloc_used_memory(void);
 void zmalloc_enable_thread_safeness(void);
+void zmalloc_set_oom_handler(void (*oom_handler)(size_t));
 float zmalloc_get_fragmentation_ratio(void);
 size_t zmalloc_get_rss(void);
 void zlibc_free(void *ptr);