diff --git a/cache/disk/disk.go b/cache/disk/disk.go
index c955a07f1..fdc507832 100644
--- a/cache/disk/disk.go
+++ b/cache/disk/disk.go
@@ -77,8 +77,9 @@ type diskCache struct {
 	accessLogger     *log.Logger
 	containsQueue    chan proxyCheck
 
-	// Limit the number of simultaneous file removals.
-	fileRemovalSem *semaphore.Weighted
+	// Limit the number of simultaneous file removals and filesystem write
+	// operations (apart from atime updates, which we hope are fast).
+	diskWaitSem *semaphore.Weighted
 
 	mu  sync.Mutex
 	lru SizedLRU
@@ -103,6 +104,11 @@ func badReqErr(format string, a ...interface{}) *cache.Error {
 	}
 }
 
+var ErrOverloaded = &cache.Error{
+	Code: http.StatusServiceUnavailable, // Too many requests/disk overloaded.
+	Text: "Too many requests/disk overloaded (please try again later)",
+}
+
 // Non-test users must call this to expose metrics.
 func (c *diskCache) RegisterMetrics() {
 	c.lru.RegisterMetrics()
@@ -167,11 +173,11 @@ func (c *diskCache) getElementPath(key Key, value lruItem) string {
 }
 
 func (c *diskCache) removeFile(f string) {
-	if err := c.fileRemovalSem.Acquire(context.Background(), 1); err != nil {
+	if err := c.diskWaitSem.Acquire(context.Background(), 1); err != nil {
 		log.Printf("ERROR: failed to aquire semaphore: %v, unable to remove %s", err, f)
 		return
 	}
-	defer c.fileRemovalSem.Release(1)
+	defer c.diskWaitSem.Release(1)
 
 	err := os.Remove(f)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -240,6 +246,12 @@ func (c *diskCache) Put(ctx context.Context, kind cache.EntryKind, hash string,
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	if !c.diskWaitSem.TryAcquire(1) {
+		// We are probably overloaded, and want to avoid hitting Go's default 10,000 max OS thread limit.
+		return ErrOverloaded
+	}
+	defer c.diskWaitSem.Release(1)
+
 	key := cache.LookupKey(kind, hash)
 
 	var tf *os.File // Tempfile.
diff --git a/cache/disk/load.go b/cache/disk/load.go
index 0ffb4652a..f0682ad70 100644
--- a/cache/disk/load.go
+++ b/cache/disk/load.go
@@ -70,7 +70,11 @@ func New(dir string, maxSizeBytes int64, opts ...Option) (Cache, error) {
 		maxBlobSize:      math.MaxInt64,
 		maxProxyBlobSize: math.MaxInt64,
 
-		fileRemovalSem: semaphore.NewWeighted(semaphoreWeight),
+		// Acquire 1 of these before starting filesystem writes/deletes, or
+		// reject filesystem writes upon failure (since this will create a
+		// new OS thread and we don't want to hit Go's default 10,000 OS
+		// thread limit.
+		diskWaitSem: semaphore.NewWeighted(semaphoreWeight),
 
 		gaugeCacheAge: prometheus.NewGauge(prometheus.GaugeOpts{
 			Name: "bazel_remote_disk_cache_longest_item_idle_time_seconds",
diff --git a/server/grpc.go b/server/grpc.go
index 42eefb262..1b5fa3f41 100644
--- a/server/grpc.go
+++ b/server/grpc.go
@@ -238,6 +238,10 @@ func gRPCErrCode(err error, dflt codes.Code) codes.Code {
 		return codes.OK
 	}
 
+	if err == disk.ErrOverloaded {
+		return codes.ResourceExhausted
+	}
+
 	cerr, ok := err.(*cache.Error)
 	if ok && cerr.Code == http.StatusBadRequest {
 		return codes.InvalidArgument
diff --git a/server/grpc_ac.go b/server/grpc_ac.go
index a5256522a..0dea2a375 100644
--- a/server/grpc_ac.go
+++ b/server/grpc_ac.go
@@ -171,6 +171,12 @@ func (s *grpcServer) maybeInline(ctx context.Context, inline bool, slice *[]byte
 			return nil // Not inlined, nothing to do.
 		}
 
+		if (*digest).SizeBytes <= 0 {
+			// Unexpected corner case?
+			*slice = []byte{}
+			return nil
+		}
+
 		if *digest == nil {
 			hash := sha256.Sum256(*slice)
 			*digest = &pb.Digest{
@@ -183,10 +189,10 @@ func (s *grpcServer) maybeInline(ctx context.Context, inline bool, slice *[]byte
 		if !found {
 			err := s.cache.Put(ctx, cache.CAS, (*digest).Hash, (*digest).SizeBytes,
 				bytes.NewReader(*slice))
-			if err != nil && err != io.EOF {
-				return err
+			if err == nil || err == io.EOF {
+				s.accessLogger.Printf("GRPC CAS PUT %s OK", (*digest).Hash)
 			}
-			s.accessLogger.Printf("GRPC CAS PUT %s OK", (*digest).Hash)
+			// De-inline failed (possibly due to "resource overload"), that's OK though.
 		}
 
 		*slice = []byte{}
diff --git a/server/grpc_asset.go b/server/grpc_asset.go
index 9a51436e6..ec187454c 100644
--- a/server/grpc_asset.go
+++ b/server/grpc_asset.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"crypto/sha256"
 	"encoding/base64"
 	"encoding/hex"
+	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	pb "github.com/buchgr/bazel-remote/genproto/build/bazel/remote/execution/v2"
 
 	"github.com/buchgr/bazel-remote/cache"
+	"github.com/buchgr/bazel-remote/cache/disk"
 )
 
 // FetchServer implementation
@@ -26,6 +28,13 @@ import (
 var errNilFetchBlobRequest = grpc_status.Error(codes.InvalidArgument,
 	"expected a non-nil *FetchBlobRequest")
 
+var resourceExhaustedResponse = asset.FetchBlobResponse{
+	Status: &status.Status{
+		Code:    int32(codes.ResourceExhausted),
+		Message: "Storage appears to be falling behind",
+	},
+}
+
 func (s *grpcServer) FetchBlob(ctx context.Context, req *asset.FetchBlobRequest) (*asset.FetchBlobResponse, error) {
 
 	var sha256Str string
@@ -114,8 +123,8 @@ func (s *grpcServer) FetchBlob(ctx context.Context, req *asset.FetchBlobRequest)
 	// See if we can download one of the URIs.
 
 	for _, uri := range req.GetUris() {
-		ok, actualHash, size := s.fetchItem(ctx, uri, sha256Str)
-		if ok {
+		actualHash, size, err := s.fetchItem(ctx, uri, sha256Str)
+		if err == nil {
 			return &asset.FetchBlobResponse{
 				Status: &status.Status{Code: int32(codes.OK)},
 				BlobDigest: &pb.Digest{
@@ -126,6 +135,10 @@ func (s *grpcServer) FetchBlob(ctx context.Context, req *asset.FetchBlobRequest)
 			}, nil
 		}
 
+		if err == disk.ErrOverloaded {
+			return &resourceExhaustedResponse, nil
+		}
+
 		// Not a simple file. Not yet handled...
 	}
 
@@ -134,29 +147,29 @@ func (s *grpcServer) FetchBlob(ctx context.Context, req *asset.FetchBlobRequest)
 	}, nil
 }
 
-func (s *grpcServer) fetchItem(ctx context.Context, uri string, expectedHash string) (bool, string, int64) {
+func (s *grpcServer) fetchItem(ctx context.Context, uri string, expectedHash string) (string, int64, error) {
 	u, err := url.Parse(uri)
 	if err != nil {
 		s.errorLogger.Printf("unable to parse URI: %s err: %v", uri, err)
-		return false, "", int64(-1)
+		return "", int64(-1), err
 	}
 
 	if u.Scheme != "http" && u.Scheme != "https" {
 		s.errorLogger.Printf("unsupported URI: %s", uri)
-		return false, "", int64(-1)
+		return "", int64(-1), fmt.Errorf("Unknown URL scheme: %q", u.Scheme)
 	}
 
 	resp, err := http.Get(uri)
 	if err != nil {
 		s.errorLogger.Printf("failed to get URI: %s err: %v", uri, err)
-		return false, "", int64(-1)
+		return "", int64(-1), err
 	}
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
 	rc := resp.Body
 
 	s.accessLogger.Printf("GRPC ASSET FETCH %s %s", uri, resp.Status)
 	if resp.StatusCode < 200 || resp.StatusCode >= 300 {
-		return false, "", int64(-1)
+		return "", int64(-1), fmt.Errorf("Unsuccessful HTTP status code: %d", resp.StatusCode)
 	}
 
 	expectedSize := resp.ContentLength
@@ -166,7 +179,7 @@ func (s *grpcServer) fetchItem(ctx context.Context, uri string, expectedHash str
 		data, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
 		if err != nil {
 			s.errorLogger.Printf("failed to read data: %v", uri)
-			return false, "", int64(-1)
+			return "", int64(-1), err
 		}
 
 		expectedSize = int64(len(data))
@@ -176,7 +189,7 @@ func (s *grpcServer) fetchItem(ctx context.Context, uri string, expectedHash str
 		if expectedHash != "" && hashStr != expectedHash {
 			s.errorLogger.Printf("URI data has hash %s, expected %s",
 				hashStr, expectedHash)
-			return false, "", int64(-1)
+			return "", int64(-1), fmt.Errorf("URI data has hash %s, expected %s", hashStr, expectedHash)
 		}
 
 		expectedHash = hashStr
@@ -186,10 +199,10 @@ func (s *grpcServer) fetchItem(ctx context.Context, uri string, expectedHash str
 	err = s.cache.Put(ctx, cache.CAS, expectedHash, expectedSize, rc)
 	if err != nil && err != io.EOF {
 		s.errorLogger.Printf("failed to Put %s: %v", expectedHash, err)
-		return false, "", int64(-1)
+		return "", int64(-1), err
 	}
 
-	return true, expectedHash, expectedSize
+	return expectedHash, expectedSize, nil
 }
 
 func (s *grpcServer) FetchDirectory(context.Context, *asset.FetchDirectoryRequest) (*asset.FetchDirectoryResponse, error) {
diff --git a/server/grpc_bytestream.go b/server/grpc_bytestream.go
index d9b3d8e49..4951eee0b 100644
--- a/server/grpc_bytestream.go
+++ b/server/grpc_bytestream.go
@@ -544,6 +544,7 @@ func (s *grpcServer) Write(srv bytestream.ByteStream_WriteServer) error {
 			}
 			return nil
 		}
+
 		if err == nil {
 			// Unexpected early return. Should not happen.
 			msg := fmt.Sprintf("GRPC BYTESTREAM WRITE INTERNAL ERROR %s", resourceName)
@@ -553,7 +554,7 @@ func (s *grpcServer) Write(srv bytestream.ByteStream_WriteServer) error {
 
 		msg := fmt.Sprintf("GRPC BYTESTREAM WRITE CACHE ERROR: %s %v", resourceName, err)
 		s.accessLogger.Printf(msg)
-		return status.Error(codes.Internal, msg)
+		return status.Error(gRPCErrCode(err, codes.Internal), msg)
 	}
 
 	select {