diff --git a/server/configs/test.conf b/server/configs/test.conf
index 74e0c537..689a815c 100644
--- a/server/configs/test.conf
+++ b/server/configs/test.conf
@@ -36,3 +36,7 @@ max_payload: 65536
 
 # slow consumer threshold
 max_pending_size: 10000000
+
+# ping interval and no pong threshold
+ping_interval: 60
+ping_max: 3
diff --git a/server/opts.go b/server/opts.go
index 3bfca3ea..950c4bfd 100644
--- a/server/opts.go
+++ b/server/opts.go
@@ -216,6 +216,10 @@ func ProcessConfigFile(configFile string) (*Options, error) {
 			opts.MaxPending = int(v.(int64))
 		case "max_connections", "max_conn":
 			opts.MaxConn = int(v.(int64))
+		case "ping_interval":
+			opts.PingInterval = time.Duration(int(v.(int64)))
+		case "ping_max":
+			opts.MaxPingsOut = int(v.(int64))
 		case "tls":
 			tlsm := v.(map[string]interface{})
 			tc, err := parseTLS(tlsm)
diff --git a/server/opts_test.go b/server/opts_test.go
index e41b043c..082f30f0 100644
--- a/server/opts_test.go
+++ b/server/opts_test.go
@@ -67,6 +67,8 @@ func TestConfigFile(t *testing.T) {
 		MaxPayload:     65536,
 		MaxConn:        100,
 		MaxPending:     10000000,
+		PingInterval:   60,
+		MaxPingsOut:    3,
 	}
 
 	opts, err := ProcessConfigFile("./configs/test.conf")
@@ -187,6 +189,8 @@ func TestMergeOverrides(t *testing.T) {
 		MaxPayload:         65536,
 		MaxConn:            100,
 		MaxPending:         10000000,
+		PingInterval:       60,
+		MaxPingsOut:        3,
 		ClusterNoAdvertise: true,
 	}
 	fopts, err := ProcessConfigFile("./configs/test.conf")