diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 84c0350763..ba3c6729d6 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -552,6 +552,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "termcolor",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "fail"
+version = "0.5.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "ec3245a0ca564e7f3c797d20d833a6870f57a728ac967d5225b3ffdef4465011"
+dependencies = [
+ "lazy_static",
+ "log",
+ "rand",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "fallible-iterator"
 version = "0.2.0"
@@ -1289,6 +1300,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "crc32c",
  "crossbeam-utils",
  "daemonize",
+ "fail",
  "futures",
  "hex",
  "hex-literal",
diff --git a/pageserver/Cargo.toml b/pageserver/Cargo.toml
index eb96544404..cfcb453732 100644
--- a/pageserver/Cargo.toml
+++ b/pageserver/Cargo.toml
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ url = "2"
 nix = "0.23"
 once_cell = "1.8.0"
 crossbeam-utils = "0.8.5"
+fail = "0.5.0"
 
 rust-s3 = { version = "0.28", default-features = false, features = ["no-verify-ssl", "tokio-rustls-tls"] }
 async-compression = {version = "0.3", features = ["zstd", "tokio"]}
diff --git a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
index a607ba77f6..7dc3c8c752 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
@@ -663,6 +663,17 @@ impl postgres_backend::Handler for PageServerHandler {
             // important because psycopg2 executes "SET datestyle TO 'ISO'"
             // on connect
             pgb.write_message_noflush(&BeMessage::CommandComplete(b"SELECT 1"))?;
+        } else if query_string.starts_with("failpoints ") {
+            let (_, failpoints) = query_string.split_at("failpoints ".len());
+            for failpoint in failpoints.split(';') {
+                if let Some((name, actions)) = failpoint.split_once('=') {
+                    info!("cfg failpoint: {} {}", name, actions);
+                    fail::cfg(name, actions).unwrap();
+                } else {
+                    bail!("Invalid failpoints format");
+                }
+            }
+            pgb.write_message_noflush(&BeMessage::CommandComplete(b"SELECT 1"))?;
         } else if query_string.starts_with("do_gc ") {
             // Run GC immediately on given timeline.
             // FIXME: This is just for tests. See test_runner/batch_others/test_gc.py.
diff --git a/pageserver/src/walreceiver.rs b/pageserver/src/walreceiver.rs
index a632c687b1..6fff1d062d 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walreceiver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walreceiver.rs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ use crate::thread_mgr::ThreadKind;
 use crate::walingest::WalIngest;
 use anyhow::{bail, Context, Error, Result};
 use bytes::BytesMut;
+use fail::fail_point;
 use lazy_static::lazy_static;
 use postgres_ffi::waldecoder::*;
 use postgres_protocol::message::backend::ReplicationMessage;
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ use zenith_utils::lsn::Lsn;
 use zenith_utils::pq_proto::ZenithFeedback;
 use zenith_utils::zid::ZTenantId;
 use zenith_utils::zid::ZTimelineId;
+
 //
 // We keep one WAL Receiver active per timeline.
 //
@@ -254,6 +256,8 @@ fn walreceiver_main(
                     let writer = timeline.writer();
                     walingest.ingest_record(writer.as_ref(), recdata, lsn)?;
 
+                    fail_point!("walreceiver-after-ingest");
+
                     last_rec_lsn = lsn;
                 }