diff --git a/services/blob/src/config.rs b/services/blob/src/config.rs
index fd66c55ab..a5a86e126 100644
--- a/services/blob/src/config.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/config.rs
@@ -1,52 +1,65 @@
+use anyhow::{ensure, Result};
 use aws_sdk_dynamodb::Region;
 use clap::{builder::FalseyValueParser, Parser};
 use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
 use tracing::info;
 
 use crate::constants::{
-  AWS_REGION, GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT, LOCALSTACK_URL, SANDBOX_ENV_VAR,
+  AWS_REGION, DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT, DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT, LOCALSTACK_URL,
+  SANDBOX_ENV_VAR,
 };
 
 #[derive(Parser)]
 #[command(version, about, long_about = None)]
 pub struct AppConfig {
   /// gRPC server listening port
-  #[arg(long = "port", default_value_t = GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT)]
-  pub grpc_port: u64,
+  #[arg(long, default_value_t = DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT)]
+  pub grpc_port: u16,
+  /// HTTP server listening port
+  #[arg(long, default_value_t = DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT)]
+  pub http_port: u16,
   /// Run the service in sandbox
   #[arg(long = "sandbox", default_value_t = false)]
   // support the env var for compatibility reasons
   #[arg(env = SANDBOX_ENV_VAR)]
   #[arg(value_parser = FalseyValueParser::new())]
   pub is_sandbox: bool,
   /// AWS Localstack service URL, applicable in sandbox mode
   #[arg(long, default_value_t = LOCALSTACK_URL.to_string())]
   pub localstack_url: String,
 }
 
 /// Stores configuration parsed from command-line arguments
 /// and environment variables
 pub static CONFIG: Lazy<AppConfig> = Lazy::new(AppConfig::parse);
 
 /// Processes the command-line arguments and environment variables.
 /// Should be called at the beginning of the `main()` function.
-pub(super) fn parse_cmdline_args() {
+pub(super) fn parse_cmdline_args() -> Result<()> {
   // force evaluation of the lazy initialized config
-  Lazy::force(&CONFIG);
+  let cfg = Lazy::force(&CONFIG);
+
+  // Perform some additional validation for CLI args
+  ensure!(
+    cfg.grpc_port != cfg.http_port,
+    "gRPC and HTTP ports cannot be the same: {}",
+    cfg.grpc_port
+  );
+  Ok(())
 }
 
 /// Provides region/credentials configuration for AWS SDKs
 pub async fn load_aws_config() -> aws_types::SdkConfig {
   let mut config_builder =
     aws_config::from_env().region(Region::new(AWS_REGION));
 
   if CONFIG.is_sandbox {
     info!(
       "Running in sandbox environment. Localstack URL: {}",
       &CONFIG.localstack_url
     );
     config_builder = config_builder.endpoint_url(&CONFIG.localstack_url);
   }
 
   config_builder.load().await
 }
diff --git a/services/blob/src/constants.rs b/services/blob/src/constants.rs
index f16aa2f25..53f44f47a 100644
--- a/services/blob/src/constants.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/constants.rs
@@ -1,48 +1,49 @@
 // Assorted constants
 
-pub const GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT: u64 = 50051;
+pub const DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT: u16 = 50051;
+pub const DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT: u16 = 51001;
 pub const AWS_REGION: &str = "us-east-2";
 pub const LOCALSTACK_URL: &str = "http://localstack:4566";
 pub const MPSC_CHANNEL_BUFFER_CAPACITY: usize = 1;
 
 /// 4MB limit
 ///
 /// WARNING: use keeping in mind that grpc adds its own headers to messages
 /// https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/doc/PROTOCOL-HTTP2.md
 /// so the message that actually is being sent over the network looks like this
 /// ```
 /// [Compressed-Flag] [Message-Length] [Message]
 ///    [Compressed-Flag]   1 byte  - added by grpc
 ///    [Message-Length]    4 bytes - added by grpc
 ///    [Message]           N bytes - actual data
 /// ```
 /// so for every message we get 5 additional bytes of data
 /// as [mentioned here](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/15734#issuecomment-396962671),
 /// gRPC stream may contain more than one message
 pub const GRPC_CHUNK_SIZE_LIMIT: u64 = 4 * 1024 * 1024;
 
 /// See [`GRPC_CHUNK_SIZE_LIMIT`] description for details
 pub const GRPC_METADATA_SIZE_PER_MESSAGE: u64 = 5;
 
 // DynamoDB constants
 
 pub const BLOB_TABLE_NAME: &str = "blob-service-blob";
 pub const BLOB_TABLE_BLOB_HASH_FIELD: &str = "blobHash";
 pub const BLOB_TABLE_S3_PATH_FIELD: &str = "s3Path";
 pub const BLOB_TABLE_CREATED_FIELD: &str = "created";
 
 pub const BLOB_REVERSE_INDEX_TABLE_NAME: &str = "blob-service-reverse-index";
 pub const BLOB_REVERSE_INDEX_TABLE_HOLDER_FIELD: &str = "holder";
 pub const BLOB_REVERSE_INDEX_TABLE_BLOB_HASH_FIELD: &str = "blobHash";
 pub const BLOB_REVERSE_INDEX_TABLE_HASH_INDEX_NAME: &str = "blobHash-index";
 
 // Environment variables
 
 pub const SANDBOX_ENV_VAR: &str = "COMM_SERVICES_SANDBOX";
 pub const LOG_LEVEL_ENV_VAR: &str =
   tracing_subscriber::filter::EnvFilter::DEFAULT_ENV;
 
 // S3 constants
 
 pub const BLOB_S3_BUCKET_NAME: &str = "commapp-blob";
 pub const S3_MULTIPART_UPLOAD_MINIMUM_CHUNK_SIZE: u64 = 5 * 1024 * 1024;
diff --git a/services/blob/src/main.rs b/services/blob/src/main.rs
index d4553c403..b8570c9c0 100644
--- a/services/blob/src/main.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/main.rs
@@ -1,32 +1,32 @@
 pub mod config;
 pub mod constants;
 pub mod database;
 pub mod grpc;
 pub mod s3;
 pub mod tools;
 
 use anyhow::Result;
 use tracing_subscriber::filter::{EnvFilter, LevelFilter};
 
 fn configure_logging() -> Result<()> {
   let filter = EnvFilter::builder()
     .with_default_directive(LevelFilter::INFO.into())
     .with_env_var(constants::LOG_LEVEL_ENV_VAR)
     .from_env_lossy();
 
   let subscriber = tracing_subscriber::fmt().with_env_filter(filter).finish();
   tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(subscriber)?;
   Ok(())
 }
 
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
   configure_logging()?;
-  config::parse_cmdline_args();
+  config::parse_cmdline_args()?;
 
   let aws_config = config::load_aws_config().await;
   let db = database::DatabaseClient::new(&aws_config);
   let s3 = s3::S3Client::new(&aws_config);
 
   crate::grpc::run_grpc_server(db, s3).await
 }