diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8eba6c8..b1c1508 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 src/
+docker-volumes/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a2e9339..6bee990 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,56 +1,86 @@
-# Docker container for HBP-Lucene-Solr #
+# Docker container for HBP-Lucene/Solr #
 
 Copyright (c) 2017-2018 2017 [DIAS](https://dias.epfl.ch/BrainDB) laboratory
 
 ---
 
-This project creates a lightweight Docker image for running HBP Spatial Search Service (API) based on .
-
-It has been developed on Ubuntu and not tested on other platforms.
+This project creates a lightweight Docker image of a customized *Lucene/Solr* implementation ([HBP-Lucene/Solr](https://bitbucket.org/sakurad/hbp-lucene-solr)) for running HBP Spatial Search Service (API).
 
 ---
 
 ## Quick-start ##
 
 **1. Clone this project**  
 ```sh
 $ git clone git@bitbucket.org:sakurad/hbp-lucene-solr-docker.git
 $ cd hbp-lucene-solr-docker
 ```
 
 **2. Clone the HBP-Lucene/Solr sources and build it**  
 ```sh
 $ git clone git@bitbucket.org:sakurad/hbp-lucene-solr.git src/hbp-lucene-solr
-$ cd src/hbp-lucene-solr && ant compile && cd solr && ant package
+$ cd src/hbp-lucene-solr && ant compile && cd solr && ant package && cd ../../../
 ```  
 
 **3. Build the docker image**  
 ```sh
 $ docker build -t hpb-lucene-solr \
 #   --build-arg JOBS=8 \
     --build-arg BUILD_DATE=`date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"` \
     --build-arg VCS_REF=`git -C ./src/ rev-parse --short HEAD` \
     .
 ```
 
-**Note:**
+**_Note:_**
 
 * If you update the sources, add `--no-cache=true` to the command above to take the new version in consideration.
 * Option `-t , --tag list`: Name and optionally a tag in the 'name:tag' format
 * Replace the `8` in `JOBS=8` with the number of CPU threads to reduce the build time on your machine.
 
+**4. Use the built image**  
+```sh
+$ docker run --rm --name my-hbp-solr -d -p 8983:8983 hbp-lucene-solr
+```
+
+## Using a custom `SOLR_HOME` (outside container)  ##
 ---
 
-## Use the built image ##
+To use a custom *Solr home* directory directory on the host system (outside the container), we can employ a `SOLR_HOME` environment variable by setting it to the desired location (which is now inside the container in its default location at `/opt/hbp-lucene-solr/server/solr`). We support this in hbp-lucene-solr-docker, in combination with volumes:  
+```sh
+docker run -it -v $PWD/mysolrhome:/mysolrhome -e SOLR_HOME=/mysolrhome hbp-lucene-solr
+```
 
-To start Spatial Search API service, you will need three folders to store the following files:
+This does need a pre-configured directory at that location (`/mysolrhome`).
 
-1. Lucene index files (actual data)
-2. ZooKeeper configuration files
-3. Solr configuration files
+As such, hbp-lucene-solr-docker supports a `INIT_SOLR_HOME` setting, which 
+copies the contents from the default directory in the image to the `SOLR_HOME` 
+(the newly specified must be empty).  
+```sh
+$ mkdir -p docker-volumes/hbp-solr1
+$ sudo chown 8983:8983 docker-volumes/hbp-solr1
+$ docker run -it -v $PWD/docker-volumes/hbp-solr1:/hbp-solr1 \
+             -e SOLR_HOME=/hbp-solr1 -e INIT_SOLR_HOME=yes \
+             hbp-lucene-solr
+```
 
-You can then start the container with the following command:
+## Putting it all together ##
+---
+
+The following is used to run the Spatial Search API in production mode:  
 ```sh
-$ docker run --rm --name my-hbp-solr -d -p 8983:8983 -t hbp-lucene-solr
+$ mkdir -p docker-volumes/hbp-solr1
+$ sudo chown 8983:8983 docker-volumes/hbp-solr1
+$ docker run \
+  --name my-hbp-solr \
+  -d \
+  -p 8983:8983 \
+  -it \
+  -v $PWD/docker-volumes/hbp-solr1:/hbp-solr1 \
+  -e SOLR_HOME=/hbp-solr1 \
+  -e INIT_SOLR_HOME=yes \
+  -e SOLR_HEAP=12g \
+  hbp-lucene-solr
 ```
 
+Note increased memory size (12GB).
+
diff --git a/scripts/init-hbp-solr-home b/scripts/init-hbp-solr-home
index 22c0803..7a80259 100755
--- a/scripts/init-hbp-solr-home
+++ b/scripts/init-hbp-solr-home
@@ -1,50 +1,50 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 #
 # A helper script to initialise a custom SOLR_HOME.
 # For example:
 #
 #   mkdir mysolrhome
 #   sudo chown 8983:8983 mysolrhome
 #   docker run -it -v $PWD/mysolrhome:/mysolrhome -e SOLR_HOME=/mysolrhome -e INIT_SOLR_HOME=yes hbp-solr
 #
 
 set -e
 
 if [[ "$VERBOSE" = "yes" ]]; then
     set -x
 fi
 
 # Normally SOLR_HOME is not set, and Solr will use /opt/solr/server/solr/
 # If it's not set, then this script has no relevance.
 if [[ -z $SOLR_HOME ]]; then
     exit
 fi
 
 # require an explicit opt-in. Without this, you can use the SOLR_HOME and
 # volumes, and configure it from the command-line or a docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
 # script
 if [[ "$INIT_SOLR_HOME" != "yes" ]]; then
   exit
 fi
 
 # check the directory exists.
 if [ ! -d "$SOLR_HOME" ]; then
     echo "SOLR_HOME $SOLR_HOME does not exist"
     exit 1
 fi
 
 # check for existing Solr
 if [ -f "$SOLR_HOME/solr.xml" ]; then
    exit
 fi
 
 # refuse to use non-empty directories, which are likely a misconfiguration
 if [ "$(find "$SOLR_HOME" -mindepth  1 ! -name lost+found | wc -l)" != '0' ]; then
     echo "SOLR_HOME directory $SOLR_HOME is not empty; refusing to create a solr home."
     exit 1
 fi
 
 # populate with default solr home contents
 echo "copying solr home contents to $SOLR_HOME"
-cp -R /opt/solr/server/solr/*  "$SOLR_HOME"
+cp -R /opt/hbp-lucene-solr/server/solr/*  "$SOLR_HOME"