diff --git a/weed/command/scaffold.go b/weed/command/scaffold.go
index 3ef7ab914..a76466ed6 100644
--- a/weed/command/scaffold.go
+++ b/weed/command/scaffold.go
@@ -136,8 +136,10 @@ addresses = [
     "localhost:30006",
 ]
 password = ""
-readOnly = false
-routeByLatency = false
+// allows reads from slave servers or the master, but all writes still go to the master
+readOnly = true
+// automatically use the closest Redis server for reads
+routeByLatency = true
 
 [etcd]
 enabled = false
diff --git a/weed/filer2/redis/redis_cluster_store.go b/weed/filer2/redis/redis_cluster_store.go
index 0915be219..f1ad4b35c 100644
--- a/weed/filer2/redis/redis_cluster_store.go
+++ b/weed/filer2/redis/redis_cluster_store.go
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ func (store *RedisClusterStore) GetName() string {
 
 func (store *RedisClusterStore) Initialize(configuration util.Configuration) (err error) {
 
+	configuration.SetDefault("useReadOnly", true)
+	configuration.SetDefault("routeByLatency", true)
+
 	return store.initialize(
 		configuration.GetStringSlice("addresses"),
 		configuration.GetString("password"),