diff --git a/templates/cloudera-scm-server.default.j2 b/templates/cloudera-scm-server.default.j2
index bddee98..934adc2 100644
--- a/templates/cloudera-scm-server.default.j2
+++ b/templates/cloudera-scm-server.default.j2
@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@ export CMF_JDBC_DRIVER_JAR="{{ cdh_cmf_jdbc_pg_driver }}"
 #
 # Default value sets Java maximum heap size to 2GB, and Java maximum permanent
 # generation size to 256MB.
-#
-export CMF_JAVA_OPTS="{{ cdh_cmf_java_opts }}"
+# Note that Java 8 removed PermGen, but the CDM server refuses to start if it is not defined, and bigger than 128M
+export CMF_JAVA_OPTS="{{ cdh_cmf_java_opts }} -XX:MaxPermSize=512M"