diff --git a/public/include/config/global.inc.dist.php b/public/include/config/global.inc.dist.php
index bf0961bc..28a7bf96 100644
--- a/public/include/config/global.inc.dist.php
+++ b/public/include/config/global.inc.dist.php
@@ -456,4 +456,19 @@ $config['cookie']['secure'] = false;
  **/
 $config['smarty']['cache'] = 0;
 $config['smarty']['cache_lifetime'] = 30;
+
+/**
+ * System load setting
+ *
+ * This will disable loading of some API calls in case the system
+ * loads exceeds the defined max setting. Useful to temporaily suspend
+ * live statistics on a server that is too busy to deal with requests.
+ *
+ * Options
+ *   max    =  float, maximum system load
+ *
+ * Defaults:
+ *   max    =  10.0
+ **/
+$config['system']['load']['max'] = 10.0;
 ?>
diff --git a/public/include/pages/api/getdashboarddata.inc.php b/public/include/pages/api/getdashboarddata.inc.php
index 94541365..95d3b061 100644
--- a/public/include/pages/api/getdashboarddata.inc.php
+++ b/public/include/pages/api/getdashboarddata.inc.php
@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@
 // Make sure we are called from index.php
 if (!defined('SECURITY')) die('Hacking attempt');
 
+// System load check
+if ($load = @sys_getloadavg()) {
+  if (isset($config['system']['load']['max']) && $load[0] > $config['system']['load']['max']) {
+    header('HTTP/1.1 503 Too busy, try again later');
+    die('Server too busy. Please try again later.');
+  }
+}
+
 // Check user token and access level permissions
 $user_id = $api->checkAccess($user->checkApiKey($_REQUEST['api_key']), @$_REQUEST['id']);