diff --git a/backend-service/README.md b/backend-service/README.md
index 275d85cea1..9ce6c9be8a 100644
--- a/backend-service/README.md
+++ b/backend-service/README.md
@@ -100,32 +100,20 @@ Ensure these JAR files are present
  lib/jython-standalone-2.7.0.jar
  lib/mysql-connector-java-5.1.36.jar
 ```
+
 ### Run
 To run the backend service:
-Set these variables to configure the application (or edit conf/database.conf)
-```
-export WHZ_DB_URL=jdbc:mysql://<mysql host>:3306/wherehows
-export WHZ_DB_USERNAME=wherehows
-export WHZ_DB_PASSWORD=wherehows
-export WHZ_DB_HOST=<mysql host>
-```
-Run backend service application on port 9001 (from the backend-service folder run:
-```
-JAVA_OPTS='-Dhttp.port=9001' ./bin/playBinary
-```
-In separate window, monitor
-```tail -f $APP_HOME/logs/console.log```
 
-Open browser to ```http://<edge node>:9001/```
+Set the variables in application.env to configure the application.
+
+To Run backend service application on port 19001 (from the backend-service folder):
+```
+./runBackend
+```
+
+Open browser to ```http://<edge node>:19001/```
 This will show ‘TEST’. This is the RESTful api endpoint
 
-Run the web ui
-```
-cd <web ui deployment dir>
-cd web
-# <ensure the conf/*.conf files are configured>
-./bin/playBinary
-```
 
 ## Next steps
 Once the Hive ETL is fully flushed out, look at the HDFS metadata ETL
diff --git a/backend-service/application.env b/backend-service/application.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f29d8ce829
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend-service/application.env
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Directory containing kerberos config files
+WHZ_KRB5_DIR="/dir/to/krb5conf"
+
+# Secret Key
+WHZ_SECRET="change_me"
+
+# Master Key to encrypt data in DB
+WHZ_MASTER_KEY="change_me_master"
+
+# Database Connection
+WHZ_DB_DRIVER="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
+WHZ_DB_USERNAME="wherehows"
+WHZ_DB_PASSWORD="wherehows"
+# Fully qualified jdbc url
+WHZ_DB_URL="jdbc:mysql://localhost/wherehows"
+
+# A comma-separated list of JOB IDs to run
+WHZ_ETL_JOB_IDS=1,2,5,10
+WHZ_KAFKA_JOB_IDS=20,21
+
+# Temp directory for ETL job
+WHZ_ETL_TEMP_DIR="/var/tmp/wherehows"
diff --git a/backend-service/application.env.template b/backend-service/application.env.template
deleted file mode 100644
index 48d5e2df31..0000000000
--- a/backend-service/application.env.template
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-# Directory containing kerberos config files
-WHZ_KRB5_DIR=
-
-# Secret Key
-WHZ_SECRET=
-
-# Master Key to encrypt data in DB
-WHZ_MASTER_KEY=
-
-# Database Connection
-WHZ_DB_DRIVER=
-WHZ_DB_USERNAME=
-WHZ_DB_PASSWORD=
-# Fully qualified jdbc url
-WHZ_DB_URL=
-
-# A comma-separated list of JOB IDs to run
-WHZ_ETL_JOB_IDS=
-WHZ_KAFKA_JOB_IDS=
-
-# Temp directory for ETL job
-WHZ_ETL_TEMP_DIR=
diff --git a/backend-service/runBackend b/backend-service/runBackend
index 5081fc718d..08065a9c05 100755
--- a/backend-service/runBackend
+++ b/backend-service/runBackend
@@ -1,2 +1,7 @@
-export JAVA_OPTS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -Dhttp.port=19001"
+set -a
+source application.env
+set +a
+
+export JAVA_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx2048m -Dhttp.port=19001"
+
 build/stage/wherehows-backend/bin/playBinary