diff --git a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
index 190e38e341..c6cb460f8f 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
@@ -183,13 +183,8 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     // as a ref.
     let conf: &'static PageServerConf = Box::leak(Box::new(conf));
 
-    // If failpoints are used, terminate the whole pageserver process if they are hit.
+    // Initialize up failpoints support
     let scenario = FailScenario::setup();
-    if fail::has_failpoints() {
-        std::panic::set_hook(Box::new(|_| {
-            std::process::exit(1);
-        }));
-    }
 
     // Basic initialization of things that don't change after startup
     virtual_file::init(conf.max_file_descriptors);
diff --git a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
index 28d6bf2621..03264c9782 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
@@ -730,7 +730,18 @@ impl postgres_backend::Handler for PageServerHandler {
             for failpoint in failpoints.split(';') {
                 if let Some((name, actions)) = failpoint.split_once('=') {
                     info!("cfg failpoint: {} {}", name, actions);
-                    fail::cfg(name, actions).unwrap();
+
+                    // We recognize one extra "action" that's not natively recognized
+                    // by the failpoints crate: exit, to immediately kill the process
+                    if actions == "exit" {
+                        fail::cfg_callback(name, || {
+                            info!("Exit requested by failpoint");
+                            std::process::exit(1);
+                        })
+                        .unwrap();
+                    } else {
+                        fail::cfg(name, actions).unwrap();
+                    }
                 } else {
                     bail!("Invalid failpoints format");
                 }
diff --git a/test_runner/batch_others/test_recovery.py b/test_runner/batch_others/test_recovery.py
index dbfa943a7a..eb1747efa5 100644
--- a/test_runner/batch_others/test_recovery.py
+++ b/test_runner/batch_others/test_recovery.py
@@ -45,14 +45,14 @@ def test_pageserver_recovery(zenith_env_builder: ZenithEnvBuilder):
 
                     # Configure failpoints
                     pscur.execute(
-                        "failpoints checkpoint-before-sync=sleep(2000);checkpoint-after-sync=panic")
+                        "failpoints checkpoint-before-sync=sleep(2000);checkpoint-after-sync=exit")
 
                     # Do some updates until pageserver is crashed
                     try:
                         while True:
                             cur.execute("update foo set x=x+1")
                     except Exception as err:
-                        log.info(f"Excepted server crash {err}")
+                        log.info(f"Expected server crash {err}")
 
     log.info("Wait before server restart")
     env.pageserver.stop()